This charming album, put together by Lottie Mae Shaw of Greenwood, Louisiana in the late 1930s or early 1940s, begins with a title on the first page reading, "“Photos and Nonsense: Words and saying which they most use. These saying fit perfect under each photo." This is followed by an index with the list of subjects, including Mae's parents and some of her many siblings, and then the portraits themselves, most of them accompanied by small comic strip captions or speech bubbles.

“You should try courting your wife again!,” “I says I’m not in the mood!,” “Tee Hee - - - Oh, I’ll just settle for a kiss,” read some of the captions, most of which are comedic in their intentions. Thanks to the presence of “Scram, ya big sardine” from the Donald Duck story “Lifeguard Daze,” we can date it to around 1939, the year that strip was published. Many of these captions likely reflect private jokes or shared perceptions of the friends and family members included.

While most are humorous, a few are surprisingly vulnerable. A portrait of the author’s sister with her partner is accompanied by a clipping that reads “It may be that the good and the wicked get their deserts in this world. It don’t seem true if we’re poor, but maybe we ain’t quite as good as we think we are.”