Persian Gulf Command.

[Teheran : Headquarters, Persian Gulf. Command, United States Army, c.1945]. Folio photograph album (320 x 255 mm), original brown textured cloth over boards with embossed silver lettering ‘Persian Gulf Command / Iran’ and embossed insignia of the Persian Gulf Command to upper board, original silk ties; [19] leaves with 268 corner-mounted gelatin silver photographs, most 70 x 90 mm (some slightly larger) – a unique selection of photos taken from commercial snapshot folders/packets acquired by the album’s owner whilst on active duty with Persian Gulf Command, with the accompanying mounted printed caption sheets from those folders/packets mounted alongside the photos; followed by [26] blank leaves; two photos apparently lost from recto of the first leaf, otherwise contents complete and in superb condition. [TOGETHER WITH] Persian Gulf Command. [Teheran : Headquarters, Persian Gulf. Command, United States Army, c.1945], 295 x 220 mm, staple-bound pictorial wrappers, pp. [34], photographically illustrated throughout; with loosely enclosed typed cover letter from Brigadier General Donald P. Booth (Persian Gulf Command), addressed to the unidentified recipient of the souvenir photo album and booklet, thanking them for their wartime contribution as a member of the Persian Gulf Command: ‘… your hardships and sacrifices of the past two years have helped immeasurably to win the war, and save the lives of fellow Americans’; the booklet and document are in very good condition.

The United States Army established its Persian Gulf Command in 1941. Its principal aim was to protect the supply of Allied military materiel to the Soviet Union which was sent overland through Persia. All members of the PCG received a specially bound photograph album, in which they could mount their own photos to remind them of their wartime service in the Middle East, along with the Persian Gulf Command booklet. The photos in the unique album offered here do not depict Persia but comprise almost exclusively scenes in Palestine, including Jerusalem; Galilee; Bethlehem; Nazareth; Tel Aviv; Mount Carmel, Haifa and Acre; Jaffa, Ramleh and Lydia; and Jericho.