[Vernacular Photo Album and Scrapbook Documenting the Travel and Activities of Strout's Military Hussar Band, a Notable Early 20th-Century Sideshow Band]

[Various locations, 1928. Good.. [28] leaves, illustrated with seventy-five photographs, and numerous ephemeral items. Oblong quarto. Contemporary black paper-covered boards, string tied. Some chipping, scuffing, and soiling to boards. Contents worn and shaken, with some leaves detached or trimmed, some images detached. Still, a lively collection. A unique vernacular photograph album and scrapbook documenting a couple of years of Strout's Military Hussar Band, a notable sideshow act that toured the country in the early part of the 20th century. A newspaper clipping (one of about thirty in the album) describes the group: "one of the finest bands in the country is furnishing music at the fair, and has already made a big hit with the visitors. In the bright red uniform of the Hussars, the band makes an excellent appearance." Another clipping states that "This attraction, a singing band of some 16 members, is said to be one of the most pretentious organizations of its sort on tour this year...." The photographs within are mostly portraits of the band members, the majority of which have been shape-cut out of larger photographs. There are also group photographs of other circus performers and sideshow acts, as well as some images capturing the after-effects of a train crash; the side of the train reads, "D.D. Murphy Shows," a well-known promoter during this period with whom the Hussar Band apparently traveled. One of the more interesting group photographs is pasted on the inside front cover and shows seven large individuals next to a manuscript caption reading, "World's Fattest Family."

The ephemeral items peppered throughout the album include tickets to fairs in Beaumont, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Fargo, Minot, and Devil's Lake, North Dakota; Memphis, Tennessee; and Sedalia, Missouri. Other ephemeral items include a business card for the solo clarinet and saxophonist of Strout's Hussar Band, Benne Kenner; other business and calling cards, newspaper clippings, and other clippings, probably from magazines.