U. S. Snapshots

THE AMERICAN PROCESSION : American Life Since 1860 in Photographs--Assembled by Agnes Rogers, with running comment by Frederick Lewis Allen--Harper ($2.75).

Though family albums are often a laughing matter they are sometimes more than that. Pictures that are enough out-of-date to be funny begin to be interesting as historical heirlooms. This big U. S. family album, its first snapshot dated 1863, gives fascinating, tantalizing glimpses of the years just over the U. S. horizon. Bound to be compared with Laurence Stallings' sinister picture-book. The First World War (TIME. July 31), The American Procession will be found less haunting, infinitely more entertaining, should be at least as widely "read." Delighted picture-gazers may wonder why such a good idea was not materialized before, will hope that more such picture-books will follow. Like other good ideas, this one came from Germany, where a picture-book of recent world history appeared in 1930.*

Opening view is of Manhattan's Broadway in 1863, shady and peaceful despite the Civil War recruiting stand. Half-a-dozen Civil Wartime photographs (some of them taken by the late, famed Photographer Mathew Brady) give at a glance more of the War's actual atmosphere than a dozen textbooks could. Other highlights in this discontinuous show: the Vanderbilt carriage house in the 1880's; Maude Adams at 18; Jack Johnson in his prime and John L. Sullivan a little past his; the wreckage of the Johnstown flood; the Florodora Sextet; Orville Wright's first flight at Kitty Hawk. N. C.; the Manhattan skyline from Governors Island in 1906 and again in 1933; Ty Cobb knocking a high fly, Maurice E. McLoughlin, the "California Comet." serving his famed "American twist"; roadside tire trouble in motoring's early days; the Titanic setting out on her fatal maiden voyage; a horsedrawn fire engine, shiny as a bugle-note and belching thunderous smoke, careering round a corner. Most spectacular shot: the attempted assassination of Manhattan's Mayor Gaynor. This well-known photograph, taken Aug. 9, 1910 an instant after the Mayor was hit, is the kind of lucky snap every news photographer dreams of. The Mayor was sailing for Europe; the cameramen had taken their pictures and gone; the World's man, Wil liam Warnecke, arrived late, and his and the assassin's shot came almost together.

The Authors of this collection are mar ried. Agnes Rogers dug through the files of news photographers and collectors to get these choice selections; Frederick Lewis Allen (Only Yesterday) after office-hours at Harper's Magazine wrote the 20,000 words of comment. Their first idea was to begin their album with the 1890's, but luckily "the material dating back to the early days of photography proved too irresistible to be passed by." One obvious improvement scored by The American Procession over The First World War; every picture has its explanatory text alongside, telling who, what, when, where. ^

* 20 Jahre Weltgeschichte in 700 Bildern (Transmare Verlag, Berlin), from which a few of the most effective captions in The First World War were taken.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.