From Yonkers to Detroit: The Staubach Family Album, 1906 1913 Charles Staubach Photo Albums

Volume 4 of the personal albums of Charles P. Staubach, of a series of at least twenty obsessively documenting his life as a cyclist, businessman with Burroughs Corporation and family member. Each volume is housed in a black three-ring binder (9 5/8" x 11 1/2", portrait orientation), with the years covered written in white ink on the spine. This particular binder is in fine condition, with minor wear to the top and bottom of the spine, and a bump on the edge of the rear cover; however, all but the last of the 21 black paper leaves are detached. Most leaves are wavy, and a few have minor tearing on the outside edge. Like the others, this album has a mimeographed sheet - typewritten, in purple ink, on a yellowing sheet of paper - summarizing, year by year, the contents of the album. The sheet starts its listing with 1906, and progresses through the years until 1913, and ends with an underlined note: "Balance of 1913 in Binder No. 5". The album opens with four pages devoted to the family s Yonkers home, and their four little children. This leads to two pages of "The Veterans Century Run" of 1906, a cycling competition; these pictures are most evocative, with the club s members sitting together on the deck of a boat taking them to Sag Harbor (a beautiful tall ship called the "Shinnecock"), and a nice shot of Brooklyn Bridge, here playfully called "The New East River Bridge". More portraits of the kids, small photos called "Ping Pong Pictures" - "5 of Arnold, 5 of Elise, and 10 of Lodge". On the verso, pictures of their newborn little brother, Charles Neff. In summer 1907 the family take a road trip to Detroit; on Independence Day, a baseball game. Photos of Niagara Falls and Lake Ontario, Toronto University, and the Legislative Building are included in this section. A fifth child appears in 1908, named Francis. Eldest son Arnold helps design and build a fun clubhouse in the yard for the use of the kids. In 1911, the family acquires a new car - a Chalmers, which peaked as a company that very year (it ran from 1908 to 1923). In 1912, the family moves to a new home in Hartford, larger than the one they leave in Yonkers, but only briefly; in 1913, they move to an impressive ivy-covered manse in Detroit. That summer, they visit the city s Belle Isle Park; we are treated to lovely photos of its attractions: the Boat Club building, the Bath House, the Canal, athletic fields, the Conservatory, the Casino, the bandstand, and the Yacht Club on a nearby island. An impressively long lake freighter is also pictured. The kids have grown up considerably. Only the very last of the album s 173 sepia-toned photos concerns Staubach s career - the reason for the frequent moves, and the cause of the family s rising comfort: a dozen men on board ship, the caption reading "Burroughs Managers on a River Trip".