BUDDING PHOTOGRAPHER in PHILADELPHIA 1940s - 50s PHOTO ALBUM by Charles Wolf, Jr

Dark red binding with early camera model and tripod featured in floral decoration, 11 1/2" x 15" x 1 1/2"
Rectangular, red lace-bound landscape-oriented album, 43 black paper pages (likely 2-3 missing)

First page announces proudly: "Photographs by Charles W. Wolf, Jr. - With - Ciro-Flex & Dollina Perfex 55" in pencil flourish. Most pages indicate which of the three cameras was utilized.

This photographer is clearly perfecting his craft and relishing his improvements - the album is lovingly arranged, with careful layouts on every page (many double-page spreads follow a 6-12 format); city and rural landscapes are featured, as well as views of buildings and houses, many boats and ships, and - most especially - personal portraits. Photos are lovingly arranged at right angles or, when thematically presented, diagonally.

Several families in the photographer's social and family circle are documented with full-page spreads:
The Sankeys, The Mortons, The Buehls ('near Allentown'); The Wyllies

Numerous landscapes and urban highlights are featured:
Within Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Zoo (many pages); Wissahickon Creek; Henry Avenue Bridge; Gustine Lake (now a freeway); Willow Grove Amusement Park; Parkway Free Library; the facade of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (the 'Rocky steps'); the Inquirer Building; Ogontz Avenue; a plaque commemorating Betsy Ross, and her house; League Island Park; and general cityscapes of downtown as it looked then

Trips to Valley Green, PA; the Dan'l Boone Homestead (Berks County, PA); and Atlantic City, Beach Haven and Ocean City, NJ, are also pictured

The Gimbels Thanksgiving Day parade of 1948 is featured in a double-page spread with amusing photographs of the various floats

Alas, time has caught up to this album, and the last four pages are loose, as are many of the photos on them, which were taped and not tabbed as they were in all earlier pages. Fortunately, none of the photos appear to be missing, but a couple have been creased or folded due to less than careful closing of the album over the decades. It is likely that a few pages are missing entirely.

The very last page features nine interesting newspaper clippings, all personal and clearly important to compiler Charles Wolf Jr., including a crossword he composed, a magic trick he successfully placed in the Inquirer in 1939 (some years before the album was started); a schematic of a fishing reel of his design, which placed in a local invention competition, and an award for a weekly 'blotto' (Rorschach-type) illustration newspaper competition from even earlier - 1928

Nearly 800 photos of various sizes, five missing (as found). A remarkably complete album, and a prize for any Philadelphia-focused or mid-20th century America collection.