11 photos of six of the seven Wind-class Icebreakers, three of which are in color. Paper size is 8 x 10

The Wind-class icebreakers were a line of diesel electric-powered icebreakers in service with the United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Coast Guard and Soviet Navy from 1944 through the late 1970s. They were very effective ships: all except Eastwind served at least thirty years, and Northwind served in the USCG continuously for forty-four years. Considered the most technologically advanced icebreakers in the world when first built, the Wind-class icebreakers were also heavily armed; the first operator of the class was the United States Coast Guard, which used the vessels for much-needed coastal patrol off Greenland during World War II. Three of the vessels of the class, Westwind, Southwind, and the first Northwind all went on to serve temporarily for the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program, while two others were built for the United States Navy and another was built for the Royal Canadian Navy; all eight vessels were eventually transferred to the United States Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard.

The Wind-class ships were the first class of true icebreakers built by the United States. Gibbs & Cox of New York provided the designs with input from the Coast Guard's Naval Engineering Division. The final design was heavily influenced by studies conducted by then LCDR Edward Thiele, USCG (later RADM, and Engineer in Chief of the U.S. Coast Guard) of foreign icebreakers, namely the Swedish Ymer, built in 1931, and the Soviet Krasin.

As to dates of photographs, I don't know as there is a very convoluted history for some of these. Some photos have the letter "W" before the number, which I believe indicates a more recent photo. Several photos show landing  or stationary helicopter and a couple show a second ship. One of the Northwind photos shows a second and third ship. One has a number 11 on the bow, which appears to be a heavy icebreaker. It should therefore be the USCGC WAGB-11 Polar Sea. The other, with the number "4", should bee the USS Glacier. Doing the math, the Glacier was decommissioned in 1987 and the Polar Sea was commissioned in 1978, so this photo of the three ships should fall in between.

Seven ships of the class were built in the United States Unfortunately, I have photos of only six of the seven as there are no images of Staten Island. This is likely because the Staten Island was immediately sent to the U.S.S.R under lend-lease after being commissioned. Those included here are:

WAGB-279 EASTWIND, WAGB-280 SOUTHWIND, WAGB-281 WESTWIND, WAGB-282 NORTHWIND, WAGB-283 BURTON ISLAND & WAGB 284- EPHISTO

None of the photos have official stamps or documentation on the rear, except for the black & white image of the Burton Island (Photo 9), which has "Official Photograph U.S Coast Guard on rear" and also a slight corner torn off in margin (Photo 7- bottom right of bottom image). Every photo has the name or initials of the ship handwritten on the rear (Photo 9). Of the six ships here that have photos, five have two photos each. The Eastwind only has one photo and is also the smallest image of all of them. There are three color images, one each of the Northwind, Burton Island and Edisto. All photos have a paper label on front.

WAGB 279-EASTWIND (PHOTO 2)

WAGB 280-SOUTHWIND (PHOTO 3)

WAGB 281- WESTWIND (PHOTO 4)

WAGB 282- NORTHWIND (PHOTO 5)

WAGB 283-BURTON ISLAND (PHOTO 6)

WAGB 284- EDISTO (PHOTO 7)

One Eastwind and one Southwind photo have armaments, so they are likely earlier images

For a collector, especially a beginner, someone has already done quite a bit of the work here for this class of icebreaker.