EXTRAORDINARY WORLD WAR I ALBUM OF THE BELGIAN FRONT.

Album, 60 pp recto and verso, "Autographs and Sketches" stamped in gilt to front cover, with approx. 35 gelatin silver prints laid in and letters, maps, diagrams, postcards, and foreign press clippings tipped in, label "J.M. de Beaufort / Author, Soldier, War Correspondent, late with the Belgian Army" attached to front cover, de Beaufort's business card taped to inner front cover, photographs laid in to front and back covers. Many pages loose or stained, some loss to three leaves, edgewear and toning throughout. Covers worn with tape remnants. Sold as is.

Belgium, circa October-December, 1914. At that point, the Belgian Army had only recently entered the war and was being routed by the German Army's superior numbers. Belgium's high command cleverly devised a plan to flood the vicinity of Furnes to keep the Germans at bay. There are several fairly detailed hand-drawn diagrams in pen, colored pencil, and pencil of the flooding plan. The photographs in the journal mainly depict Belgian and French soldiers; de Beaufort is visible in several. One image shows two unexploded bombs, with "aeroplane bombs" written on its verso in pencil, beside de Beaufort's note about how they landed close to his room in Furnes. Other photographs show bombed-out buildings. There are cartoons—mostly anti-German—drawn at various points throughout. De Beaufort, also known as Count de Beaufort, was quite an elusive figure. His real name was Uilenbroek and he was a Dutchman, thought to have been a deserter. He came to Chicago in 1909, married a steel magnate's daughter and entered show business. By 1912 he was divorced and took up newspaper work; he became known as the "Dude Reporter." See American Cinematographers in the Great War, 1914-1918, 2015.