Amazing Trash Find! 1924-1938 Historic Scrap Book!

UnderMiner

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Jul 27, 2014
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From 1924 to June 1938 a young man named William Arthur Jacob put together a scrap book that depicted 14 years of his life, from his days in the US Army, to his training in the New York City Police Academy, to his honeymoon which took him all over the nation. William lived it up and had fun at every moment. Long after he completed this one-of-a-kind photo album scrap book and long after he had died someone in his family decided that poor William's life was not actually that interesting and tossed his lovingly-made scrap book into a garbage bag that was placed on the curbside for the trash man. 80 years and 4 months after it was completed I found William's scrap book tonight before it could be destroyed and lost forever. This is just SOME of what I found inside, the book is 55 pages long and contains HUNDREDS of historic photos...

The cover to the book labeled "WAJ":
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The title page describing this as the scrap book of William Arthur Jacob who produced the book from 1924- June 1938:
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William Arthur Jacob, a funny guy:
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William at Camp Smith in 1935:
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I would have hung out with these guys if I was alive in 1935.
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The guard of a North Carolina chain gang looks towards the camera:
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William presents us with his interpretation of President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" as it's never been seen before, the 'Nude Deal':
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Fisher Island July 1936:
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The Great Depression was hitting some places worse than others, here is 1936 Luray, Virginia:
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Shahola Pennsylvania in 1933 still reminds one of the railroad towns of the old west
with its unpaved dirt roads still kicking up dust as the steam train pulls into the station:
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1933 Fort Wright, Fishers Island N.Y.
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Firing the big cannon:
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1934 Brooklyn NY, Possibly Floyd Bennett Field:
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NYC Police Academy 1937:
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There are many more photos that I can upload later... including ones where they are on a battle ship, New York City Police Academy training photos, Bi-plane barn storming, etc.
 

Last edited:
Upvote 43
hey brother i like your southern pride picture and sayings, my family came from Louisiana and most are still there. my great, great uncle was CONFEDERATE general Henry Hopkins Sibley

Wow!!! General Sibley?!?! My hat goes off to you brother, from what I know of General Sibley, and if memory serves me right, he was born in Natchitoches Louisiana and during the civil was he was placed as the commander of the brigade of volunteer cavalry men in west Texas and call his small unit the Army of New Mexico. After he lost his supplies when his supply train was destroyed he was reassigned to General Taylor around Bayou Teche', Louisiana. Once again, it's pretty cool knowing he was your blood kin!!! Thanks for the kind words concerning my signature and pic... Take care brother and may God Bless you and yours!!! "D"
 

Nice save Underminer,, once again you have come up with an extremely interesting piece of personal history. Some of his ancestors may have been cleaning out his house after he passed. Who knows what kind of goodies they decided to keep.
 

That's an amazing save-thanks for sharing this. It's a shame that his family or whomever was last in possession of the book threw it out.
 

Thats a nice little piece of someone's personal history. Glad you saved it from sure destruction.
 

Awesome find UnderMiner and a wonderful presentation!

Pic # 1 "Puttin On The Ritz" I also noticed in the photo of the soldiers with their rifles, the men up front, appear to be carrying carbines. I can't see the actions but I didn't know they even made a Springfield carbine.

In the photos of Luray Va is there any mention of the names of the subjects? My dad grew up there.

Thanks for posting and I'm recommending a banner for this one.
 

Amazing recovery, are you going to try to reach out and contact the family to return?
 

He may not have had much family survive. I have the hope that it wasn't family that threw it out, but it does happen a lot. When my grandmother passed My dads sisters went through her house and ejected tons of things including my great grandfathers military papers from Switzerland marriage license, naturalization papers and the like. I happened upon them sifting through the trash and helped myself. 10 years or so later they were all frantically looking for the papers because of some ancestry project one of them got involved in. I have to this day kept my mouth shut.
 

I would give anything to find something like this from one of my ancestors. I can't comprehend someone throwing it out. Great save!
 

That’s a real shame that it was thrown away. Maybe local historical society would be interested in it. I can’t believe the family tossed it. . Pretty sad. Nice save

The Henry L. Ferguson Museum on Fisher's Island has expressed interest in displaying the photos for their history exhibit so I have contacted them regarding this.
 

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