Oblong 16mo album. (60)ff. First 23 leaves with mounted drawings, each one with caption and "frame." The initial images record the state of cathedrals and homes in the vicinity of Meuse, Vaubecourt, and the villages of Louppy-le-Petit and Sermaize before and after the bombings, to which the area, proximate to the fronts at the Marne and Verdun, was especially vulnerable. Other technological catastrophes depicted include the crashes of a zeppelin and an airplane. Later entries take on the stylistic guise of the political cartoon, showing soldiers in the field, prisoners under watch, the execution of a young French soldier by firing squad, and close combat of American, French, and German forces at Chateau-Chierry. The sketchy aesthetic of these illustrations belies their testimonial seriousness. That the artist was aware of the potentiality of the album as a historical record is especially evident at the second sheet, which shows the collapsed church at Louppy-le-Petit drawn in a manner strikingly similar to a photograph held at the Meuse archive. A. Gaillard was a Meuse resident (their crumbling house appears at sheet nine) and a contributor to postcard designs for the region. Bound in buckram over boards with hand-illustrated cover. Mild exterior soiling, front hinge wiggly, else very good. Gaillard has signed the front flyleaf, there indicating a December 20, 1916 start date for the record.