317

Scrapbook kept by a machinist on the aircraft carriers Lexington and Enterprise.

Various places, bulk 1940-1944
2 letters, 39 pieces of ephemera and numerous news clippings and whole newspapers pasted down on 14 leaves or laid in. 4to, relief gilt illustrated boards, string-bound; minor wear, rebacked with tape; generally minor wear to contents.

  • Notes: This scrapbook was kept by Gordon Douglas Farquhar (1919-1989), who lived with his uncle Carl Damer Gordon in San Antonio, CA and was a student at Northwestern University before enlisting as a navy machinist in 1940. He reached the rank of Aviation Machinist's Mate 1st Class.

    Farquhar served aboard the USS Lexington until it was sunk in the battle of the Coral Sea. Lexington material in this album includes: the 22 March 1941 issue of the shipboard USS Lexington Observer; two matchbooks; the Navy Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner menus from 1941; the USS Lexington Radio Press News dated 17 October 1941; an illustrated greeting card; a mimeograph poem on the sinking titled "To the U S S Lexington"; and a 1941 print by C.G. Smith titled "the Lexington Minuteman," 15½ x 12¼ inches, toned and worn. His 10 December 1941 letter to his aunt and uncle, less than a week after Pearl Harbor, toys with the censors: "The weather has been a little on the heavy side the last couple of days, if you get what I mean."

    After the loss of the Lexington, he served on the USS Enterprise, a highly decorated aircraft carrier. From the Enterprise, we find the 1943 pamphlet "The Old Lady of Mars: The Story of the Glorious Fight of the U.S.S. Enterprise" signed by 8 fellow seamen.

    Other noteworthy material includes: a 1947 San Diego to San Francisco flight chart, 14 x 37 inches; souvenir photos taken at the Town Ranch nightclub in Seattle, 1943 and the Paris Inn in San Diego; and 5 snapshot photos including naval vessels and tropical islands.
  • Condition:
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November 20, 2025 10:30 AM EST
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