Item #3662 [Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Featuring the Exploits of an Arizona Woman in the American West and Chicago Over a Long Period of Time]. Western Photographica, Margaret E. Wells, Arizona.
[Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Featuring the Exploits of an Arizona Woman in the American West and Chicago Over a Long Period of Time]
[Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Featuring the Exploits of an Arizona Woman in the American West and Chicago Over a Long Period of Time]
[Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Featuring the Exploits of an Arizona Woman in the American West and Chicago Over a Long Period of Time]

[Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Featuring the Exploits of an Arizona Woman in the American West and Chicago Over a Long Period of Time]

[Various locations, mainly Arizona, Montana, and Illinois: ca. 1925-1942]. [77] leaves, illustrated with 617 original photographs, from about 1.5 x 1 to 4 x 3 inches, almost every page profusely annotated in white ink. Oblong folio. Contemporary faux-alligator brown leather, string-tied. Edges and joints worn, minor rubbing to covers. Compiler's ownership inscription on inside front cover, reading "Property of Margaret E. Wells" with her address in Douglas, Arizona. Occasional empty mounts, minor wear to some photos, but overall a very well-preserved collection. Very good. Item #3662

A densely-packed collection of annotated vernacular photographs documenting about a decade-and-a-half of an Arizona woman's life in the West and during various travels around the country in the early-20th century. Margaret E. Wells grew up on a ranch near Douglas, Arizona, which is well-represented in the photographs, picturing various family members, scenes around the exterior of the ranch house, a shot of their school teacher Mrs. Wodham, taking care of the livestock, and more, including Margaret as a younger child. There are also a healthy amount of images around Douglas, as well as other Arizona locations such as Cave Creek, Ajo, Grand Canyon National Park, and Tombstone.

As Margaret grows older, the album records her travels, taking her to numerous locations around the United States, such as Yellowstone Park; Virginia City, Montana; Bozeman, Montana; campus views of Montana State College (where she may have been a student for some time); desert scenes near Reno, Nevada; the Chicago World's Fair in 1934; Long Beach, California; San Francisco; Bryce National Park and Zion National Park in Utah; Washington; and Oregon. Some of the later photos show Margaret working at Spiegel, Inc., and some of the last photographs document Margaret and her husband John with, presumably, their young child. Some of the more interesting images include Margaret and some of her companions dressed in "Mexican Sombreros" in Bozeman in 1927; two elevated shots of the town of Virginia City; a handful of shots of Wells' friend Buster "working on the railroad" in Arizona; and numerous shots of the various characters in a Spring 1939 rodeo in Douglas.

A wide-ranging collection of annotated vernacular images recording about fifteen years in the life of a young Arizona woman in her home state as well as several other states before, throughout, and after the Great Depression.

Price: $850.00