American Historical Ephemera and Photography

Oblong pseudo leather album with gilt text titling and identifying the book to William H. Radcliffe, approx. 12 x 10 in. (significant wear to extremities) containing 44 printed pages and 46 blank pages with various newspaper clippings, printed materials, and over 110 tipped-in silver gelatin photographs ranging in size from 1 3/4 x 2 5/8 in. to 8 x 10 in., most secured with adhesive (conditions mostly good, some with significant toning, creasing, and/or wear to edges). 

Photographs record the construction of Camp Knox along with the daily life of Constructing Quartermaster Major William H. Radcliffe (1879-1952) and family during his tenure overseeing the camp's construction. Newspaper clippings report on progress of construction, opinions about the project, and any other news related to the camp, its inhabitants, and its surroundings. Other tipped-in ephemera includes a souvenir program for a dinner given by the Civilian Engineers as a tribute to Major Radcliffe on 28 May 1919, a printed handbill announcing "two farewell out-of-doors meetings" to honor Major Radcliffe, a signed letter from Colonel A.L.P. Sands to Major Radcliffe thanking him for an original cartoon drawing, and other items. Printed pages mostly feature cartoons about Camp Knox, likely featured in issues of the short-lived Camp Knox News. 

Highlighted photographs include 8 1/4 x 6 3/8 in. group portrait of 9 subjects including men, women, and children, standing on an earthen staircase descending into a cave. Penciled caption on page below photograph reads, "Mammoth Cave Ky." -- HESSE, photographer. 8 x 10 in. view featuring male, female, and child subjects sitting on the porch/steps of a building with signage reading, "Fairbanks, Morse & Co., Louisville." One man poses on horseback just in front of the building. Photographer's imprint in the negative, lower right. Fairbanks, Morse & Co. was a Chicago-based corporation that furnished and installed scales, motors, electric lighting plants, etc., with branches in numerous cities throughout the United States. It is unclear who the subjects are, but it is likely they including Major Radcliffe and some of his family members. -- 3 portraits of Perry Radcliffe (William Radcliffe's brother) in uniform, largest 3 1/4 x 5 1/4 in. -- A snapshot of two children playing on a swing, one a white female subject and the other an African American male subject.

Stithton, KY was selected as the location to establish a Field Artillery Brigade Firing Center Cantonment for six brigades, or 45,000 men, which would be called Camp Knox, after General Henry Knox of Revolutionary War fame. The Army leased 20,000 acres of property in the summer of 1918, and construction of the garrison's buildings, organized under Major Radcliffe, began in August. In 1932, the camp was made a permanent installation, and has henceforth been known as Fort Knox. Though its functions and inhabitants have changed with the Army's fluctuating needs throughout the past century, Fort Knox has remained a bullion depository since 1937.

The city of Radcliff, Kentucky, just 15 miles north of Elizabethtown, where Major Radcliffe stayed for the majority of his time at Camp Knox, is named after the major, who ultimately achieved the rank of colonel before leaving the Army.