Album with 106 Original Gelatin Silver Photographs of the USCGC Eastwind’s Annual Summer Cruise to Greenland (Thule Air Force Base, Cape Etoh, Grondal, and Godthab) Showing American & Canadian Vessels (USS Glynn, USCGC Westwind, and Labrador), Prominent Arctic Explorer Donald Macmillan, a Helicopter Crash Landing on the Ice, “Frog Men” Preparing for Underwater Dynamiting, Local Eskimos Posing with the Captain Rhanke, etc.; Also with the Images of Sailors Meeting Danish Admiral on the Fourth of July, Having a Beer Party, and Celebrating the Initiation Ceremony in Costumes. Ca. 1950s.

Oblong Folio album (ca. 22,5x33,5 cm). 28 card stock leaves (9 blank). With 106 gelatin silver photographs (1 loosely inserted). Some of the photos mounted with tape, some photos with corner mounts, some glued. Four larger images ca. 20,5x25 cm (8 x 10 in), smaller images from ca. 10x12,5 (4 x 5 in) to 9x8,5 (3 ½ x 3 ½ in). Many photos with the printed stamp “U.S. Coast Guard Official Photo Eastwind” on verso. Most of the photos with period blue ink captions on verso, ca. 20 photos with captions on negatives. With 7 newspaper clippings of various sizes (2 loosely inserted) and 1 mounted postcard with the compiler’s manuscript note. Front cover suede, back cover cloth album fastened with a string; front cover embossed “Photo Album.” Mild wear of extremities, a few photos with mild silvering, but overall a very good album with strong interesting photos.

Historically important collection of lively photos which document the USCGC Eastwind's summer cruise to Greenland in 1953 & 1954. The voyages were part of annual missions with a Navy Task Force Group, escorting supply ships to replenish remote American & Canadian weather stations in the Far North.

The album's compiler, Clarence "Jack " B. Scarborough (ca. 1922-2001), was a senior enlisted man in the supply and disbursing departments of the USCGC Eastwind. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy in Panama, California, and Hawaii. After the war, he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, serving in the District Office in Boston, Massachusetts, and on the Cutter Eastwind in the Greenland area. In 1959, Scarborough achieved the rank of warrant officer in the U.S. Coast Guard Service and was stationed at the Coast Guard Academy's finance and supply section in New London, Connecticut. (See more at: Ocracoker Back from Long Stay in Arctic Circle // The Coastland Times. 13 June 1958, p. 1).

The album documents the USCGC Eastwind's voyage from Boston to Greenland, with the main port of call at the Thule Air Force Base (U.S. Air Force's northernmost base). About seven photographs show the icebreaker on its way to Thule, "leading a Navy LSD into Thule, " transferring ammunition & being tied up to the dock at the Thule Air Force base, etc. A series of photos show other American & Canadian vessels from the operation, including USS Glynn (commissioned in 1945), USCGC Westwind (commissioned in 1944), Canadian Labrador (commissioned in 1954) & a helicopter of the Royal Canadian Navy. There are also two interesting photographs of the Danish Admiral meeting the Eastwind sailors at the Danish navy base in Grondal on the 4th of July. Another photo shows Captain Rhanke talking with the prominent Arctic explorer Donald Macmillan (Macmillan made over 30 expeditions to the Arctic during his 46-year career and pioneered the use of radios, airplanes, and electricity in the Arctic). Over fifteen photos show individual and group portraits of the compiler, crewmembers (posing in uniforms, having a beer party, participating in a playful Initiation Ceremony scene in costumes), and local Eskimos in Cape Etoh and Godthab (including "the Captain + two Eskimos "). Other images depict a helicopter crash landing on the ice, "frog men " preparing for underwater dynamiting, Santa Claus ascending a ladder to the Eastwind, etc.

The album is supplemented by seven newspaper clippings (apparently all from the 1950s), mostly reporting about the compiler's and his brother’s professional successes. Also included is a postcard with Jack’s brief manuscript note to his wife, Mary, dated 6 June 1953. In the note, the author expresses his well wishes for her and their son in Ballardvale, Massachusetts. Overall, a historically important collection of lively photos documenting the USCGC Eastwind's summer cruises to Greenland in 1953 & 1954.