Photograph album documenting six years in the life of an itinerate west coast laborer, whaler, and general seaman.
Oregon, at sea, and in many ports of call: 1919-1926. Album. The album measures 15.5" x 9" and contains 100 pages with over 300 photographs (mostly 3" x 5"), several pieces of personal ephemera, about 15 newspaper or periodical clippings, and 46 different beer bottle labels. The photos are arranged in somewhat chronological order, and almost all are in nice shape; a couple are creased or torn. Everything is pasted/glued to the pages save for a few newspaper clippings. Most pages are captioned in now fading white pencil. The album is worn. The back cover has been mended and the binding cord replaced. The pages are edge-worn.
Deneen was a seaman and laborer who moved from job to job, documenting his life with a camera and occasionally selling photos and short articles to magazines, e.g., "Dangerous Static" in Science and Invention, a short photo-essay about his experience working as a steeplejack on a 600' tall radio antennae.
The album includes:
5 photos of the funeral of Nestor Varrio, a seaman and member of the Sailors Union of the Pacific who was shot at Linnton, Oregon during a gun battle with police after he and other members used a firearm to threaten scab dockworkers.
11 photos and a magazine clipping showing Deneen's work cleaning insulators on a 600' radio antennae for station KKK at Hillsboro, Oregon.
11 photos of a bullfight in Lima, Peru.
18 photos of a whaling expedition for the American Pacific Whaling Company that brought in the first whale of the 1920 season including images of a fin-back whale at sea, firing the harpoon gun, and the dead whale in the water and on a dock.
6 photos of Hot Springs, Arkansas including the New Arlington and Waukesa Hotels and The Geary and Quapaw Bathhouses.
4 photos from 1900 of the shipwreck of a three-masted sailing ship, the Helga, at Waikiki Beach. Several photos of Deneen and shipmates holding caught fish including barracuda, sailfish, mahi-mahi, etc.
Several photos of the Hood and Columbia River.
A few photos of clam digging for canneries.
A number of photos of shipmates and ships (both sailing and steam) upon some of which Deneen sailed including the Frank H. Bunk, S.S. Tennessee, Lyman Steward, and Meriden.
Many other photos at sea and of harbors, cities, and the countryside of Alaska, Alexandria, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Portland, Richmond (California), and Shanghai.
46 large and colorful labels from beers of Australia, the Canal Zone, Germany, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, and the Philippines. Very good. Item #008712 A truly fascinating visual record of a seaman’s life in the early 1920s.
Price: $1,500.00