[Photo Album]: C.C.C. Co. 2511

Author: KENJEVARIK, Frank
Title: [Photo Album]: C.C.C. Co. 2511
Publication: Challis, Idaho: [1935]

Description: Softcover. Oblong quarto. Measuring 12" x 8". String-tied tan leather wrappers with CCC seal in red felt on the front wrap. Contains 107 sepia toned or black and white gelatin silver photographs measuring between 2.5" x 3.5" and 5" x 7", some with captions. Very good album lacking the rear wrapper with creasing and tiny tears with near fine photographs.

A photo album kept by Frank Kenjevarik while serving with the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935. The first two pages include autographs from his fellow CCC campmates which include their names, addresses, and dates. Also included are three laid in CCC patches and an envelope from a photo processing studio in Kansas. Following this are photos of Kenjevarik and his fellow campmates around the site posed in group photos around their cabins, playing guitar, in the forest, riding horses, and with the camp dog. The landscape of the surrounding area is seen throughout the photos with mountains, wooded areas, and snow covered fields. This particular camp was involved with the forestry department of the CCC and many of the photos show them around stacks of wood. One captioned photo shows a friend of Kenjevarik at a camp in Oregon. Idaho had numerous CCC camps, although some were forced to shut down after a severe winter left them ravaged. Not much is written about the 2511, but through the photographs they appear to have been a tight knit group of men happy to have employment.

The CCC, created in 1933, was known as Franklin Roosevelt's "forest army." It drew recruits from the relief rolls and employed them in conservation and forestry jobs in support of the National Park Service and other public works projects. Originally CCC recruits were given two sets of clothes, a blue denim work outfit and a repurposed World War I style Army olive drab uniform for dress. According to National Park Service history, when Franklin Roosevelt visited a camp near Warm Springs, he was surprised by the poor quality of the uniforms and asked the Department of the Navy to design a special CCC uniform. These were in widespread use by 1939. As the country recovered from the Depression and began to gear up for military defense, enrollment in the CCC decreased. In mid-1942, Congress voted to disband it.

A nice collection of photographs documenting young men's work with the CCC in Idaho.

Seller ID: 418449

Subject: Ephemera, Photography