PICARD M. et B. JUGHONLivre Rare Book
Midcentury Photo Album of a High Schooler in Upstate New York
1948réf. 19690Poughkeepsie 1948-1951. Very good . Oblong 16mo. Commercial string-tied album white boards. 225 gelatin-silver prints 2.5" by 3.25" corner-mounted on black paper with captions in white ink. Apparently complete. Very good plus. Mild touches of wear along page edges; many captions a bit smudged; else clean and sound. A evocative collection of photographs taken and compiled by Robert H. Tucker while he was a student at MIT of his high school career at Poughkeepsie's Arlington High School where he graduated with the class of 1950. Tucker called this album his "own yearbook" and it indeed shares a great deal with conventional yearbook style with humorous captions "A test Oh no!" and attention to a wide range of faculty staff and student activities both in and out of the classroom. Subjects include track meets baseball games cheerleaders teachers at the blackboard students at work in the library a special event including donkey-riding in the gym commencement and other activities. More than mere yearbook however the album reveals Tucker to be a natural photographer with an eye for both composition and POV; his sports shots are especially vibrant often crisply capturing athletes in the midst of the action. A detailed album capturing the dawn of the post-war American teenager. Indeed quintessentially so; we are tempted to call this an almost Platonically ideal example of the high school album. hardcover books
