MEDICALLY EXPLICIT PHOTO ALBUMS 1984-86; 1988-92 -

Flip-it photo albums with about 185 color Polaroid photos, which arecarefully dated with the last name of the patient scrawled on in marker, as is the date - but no explanation of the often gruesome conditions documented in the photos is offered. Neither is any context given for these photos - where is this hospital? What is the medical specialty of the photographer?

In the later album, 91 color photographs - not for the faint of heart or the medically inexperienced - 11 1/2" x 5 12" x 1 1/2", blue cover.

The earlier album, also flip-it but layered rather than gatefolded, is brown in cover; the 93 photos within are dated 1984-86. More frightfully explicit photos of ghastly wounds and nightmarish conditions. Tucked into this album is an old letter, dated January 1944, appointing Dr. (name withheld) of Clifton, New Jersey, to the role of Surgeon with the rank of Lieutenant Commander, USNR (Naval Reserve).The Doctor has signed the bottom section of the letter headlined 'Acceptance and Oath of Office'. Included with the letter, four black and white photographs of two different men. It is unclear if this Doctor is the one who these albums belonged to, or if the letter was simply tucked in as part of a general medicine-related collection.