[Photo Album]: Houston Shipbuilding Corporation Photographs

Houston, Texas: Houston Shipbuilding Corporation, 1943. Hardcover. Near Fine. Oblong small quarto. Screw bound leather over boards. Titled on front cover in gilt. Contains approximately 125 mostly linen backed doubleweight gelatin silver photographs. Some variation in size of the photographs, but all an approximation or slight variation of 11" x 8.5". Images and binder are nice and near fine. Roughly the first half of the album depicts the shipyard, facilities, dry dock, laying down of hulls, and construction of various ships, etc. Approximately the later half depicts launching of individual ships, captioned on the verso with the name, date of launch, "sponsor" who launched the ship (a woman, in every case) all from the Houston Shipbuilding Corporation's Irish Bend Island Shipyard. In a few cases there are images of the women ceremonially launching the ships. Most of the photos are dated, either by hand or on a typed label on the verso. A modest number have the photographer attributed, in each case the Litterst Com[mercia]l Photo Co. Shipbuilding had been a relatively nominal industry in Texas with the exception of WWI, but was revived in the run up to WWII. This album was apparently prepared for the Houston Shipbuilding Corporation, which commenced operations in Spring of 1941, providing Liberty Ship supply transport ships and troop transports, the burst of industry fueled by the world at war. An impressive display of wartime industry.