seaman albums, scrapbooks & mementos

Scrapbooks and snapshots capture ephemeral moments and act as sentinels for memory. In the period between the wars, scrapbooking was a great American pastime with families collecting bits and pieces of their lives to memorialize; this cultural phenomenon was not lost on members of the military or seafaring professions. During the Second World War, ever present aboard ships, training stations, and at the maritime academies were shutterbugs and official photographers taking photographs and others carefully pasting, taping, or hinging memories away.

When I look at these ephemera and photographs, it helps me create a pastiche of the time and the lives of those on the sea during the war years.

★ signifies collection is online.