American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Green leather-wrapped boards, approx. 13 1/2 x 16 in. (front portion of front cover completely separated from album, light wear and discoloration to pages, few photographs loose) containing a few mementos, insect specimens, and over 400 photographs ranging in size from approx. 3 x 2 1/8 in. to 9 7/8 x 7 7/8 in., most secured in corner mounts (conditions generally good, with some toning to certain images). Photographs are predominantly silver gelatin snapshots, with about half featuring ink captions inscribed directly on album pages. 

Photographs of Saipan, some dated to June and July of 1944, show the aftermath of the Battle of Saipan, including smoldering ruins, casualties, and prisoners. Photographs of Tinian Island range from prewar street scenes to aerial reconnaissance views showing bomb hits, marines approaching the shore, Japanese aircraft and casualties, to snapshots of Douglass and his cohorts adapting to daily life on the island base. One such photograph shows the "JCC Baseball Team," with each subject shown wearing a "JCC Tinian" t-shirt and identified in the accompanying caption. Several photographs also feature B-29s, including the atomic bomb carriers, the "E" squadron over Mount Fujiama, a P51 Mustang, a P-47 Thunderbolt, and more. Douglass was assigned to the USS Lavaca in 1945, and a series of phtoographs feature the ship along with some of its officers and crew. 

A native of Portland, Oregon, James Sumner Douglass (1920-2004) was honorably discharged from the US Navy in 1947, and the 1950 federal census records that he returned home to Portland after the war.