WW2 SCRAPBOOK ANNOTATED by the scrapbooker.

WORLD WAR 2 SCRAPBOOK with ANNOTATIONS by the scrapbooker.- Folio, 17-1/2 inches high by 13-1/2 inches wide. A manuscript scrapbook consisting of 62 leaves (124 pages) bound with 2 silver clasps between brown Masonite-like boards. The contents of the scrapbook are for the most part tipped-in articles, cartoons and images clipped from newspapers of the period. These are accompanied by the sometime profuse handwritten comments of the scrapbooker. These comments are occasionally personal but mostly historical. The handwritten text begins on September 1st 1939: "At 5:30 this morning Germany started marching into Poland - which means that England & France must & will declare war against Germany." On Sept 2 she comments: "Poor dear Germany. There are so many thousands of people - fine people. To think that they must all go out & fight for some one they hate against some one they like." On September 3 she writes: "Went to church & Mass at 11. Half way thru Mass an officer came in & whispered to some soldiers hearing Mass. They got up & left - On getting home we found that at 11 a.m. England had declared war on Germany." And the next day: "Archie [her new husband] went off to the office to say goodbye. They were very nice & thank heavens he gets his job back after the war - if any of us are alive.The street corners are painted black * white so you can see where you are at night." On September 17th there appears a nasty cartoon featuring Chamberlain, roughly translated: This German woman was tortured and murdered by Polish beasts in Bromberg as a result of England's blanket authority. What will Mr. Chamberlain tell you Next to it is pasted an article reporting on Russia's invasion of Poland. A Soviet dispatch reads "The Polish-german war has revealed the rottenness of the Polish State and its Government". A newspaper copy of Hitler's September 19th Danzig speech attempting to justify his invasion of Poland is tipped in. The scrapbooker writes on September 24 of the terrible plight of a friend: ".she is sleeping in an old Warehouse with 35 other girls and the place isn't even water-proof to say nothing of being unheated. Their job is to act either as chauffers to all the officers or else as ambulance drivers." Hitler's October 6 Reichstag speech as published in a newspaper is tipped in. A newspaper article states "RED TERROR COMES TO POLAND. Ninety-Nine per cent of the people of Poland consider the Russian invasion incomparably worse than the German because of its infinitely greater cruelty." On November 5th "Black-out deaths are becoming alarming. Now that it is dark at 6 - just at the rush hour there are a lot of accidents." Articles on Mussolini and on the Graf Spee start appearing. On December 2nd the scrapbooker writes: "USA has threatened to stop selling arms to the Soviet. Oh yeah They'll sell anything in order to make money." And on December 9th: "Because everyone had their pets killed at the beginning of war, London is now overrun with rats".The first part of the scrapbook ends on December 13, 1939. She picks up again on April 1st 1940. Here is tipped-in the newspaper printing of Churchill's "Finest Hour' speech of June 18, 1940. On June 29, 1940 The Times of London prints a large image of the Churchill "Deserve Victory" poster. David Lloyd George's article "France: The Terrible Warning" appears in the "Sunday Pictorial". The scrapbook ends on July 2nd 1940. Superb source material. The 23-year-old creator of the scrapbook was, at the time of her death, the widow of U.S. Ambassador Lincoln MacVeagh. Born on September 12, 1916, Virginia "Bimbetta" was the daughter of Marchese and Marchesa Agostino Ferrante di Ruffano. Her mother, Virginia Cameron MacVeagh, came from a line of important American government officials. Her father served as consul general of Italy in several countries. She accompanied her family to the diplomatic postings of her father, including Istanbul, Boston, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Sydney and finally Dresden in 1938. Bimbetta married Archibald J. Coats in Frankfurt on April 27, 1939 and the couple settled in England. Coats was called up by the military in 1939 and fought in the Sudan. Bimbetta left England in 1940, settling in Cazenovia New York. She and Archibald Coats divorced in 1950. In 1952 she moved with her children to Madrid. It was there that her relationship with Lincoln MacVeagh, the Ambassador to Spain, took root. After MacVeagh's retirement the couple resided in Estoril, Portugal and were married there in 1955. Bimbetta died in Cazenovia on April 13, 2014.

Product Info

Publisher: London, Sept. 1, 1939-Dec. 31, 1939. April 1, 1940-July 2, 1940. [1940].

Year: [1940].

Type: Used

Binding: Softcover

Seller Info

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