[Western Photographica]

[Vernacular Photograph Album Documenting a Journey from Florida to California and then Colorado]

[Various locations including the Southwest, California, Mexico, and Colorado: ca. 1900]. Forty silver gelatin photographs on thirty-eight leaves. Images 3 x 4 inches (all but three), one per page and captioned. Oblong 12mo album. Original black cloth with black paper leaves. Internally clean, most images with good definition and contrast. Very good plus. Item #1880

A charming little photograph album documenting a holiday vacation across the country. The trip begins on a steamer off the Florida Coast, with stops at New Orleans, Arizona, Texas, Mexico, and on to California. Images in the Southwest include Native American street vendors in Yuma, adobe houses in El Paso, and the prison and post office in Juarez. In California, where the bulk of the images were taken, the group visits Los Angeles, Ocean Beach, the ostrich farm at Pasadena, Long Beach, Catalina Island, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Berkeley. From San Francisco they board a train, snapping photos from the railway car. In Colorado they visit Pueblo, Cripple Creek, Colorado Springs, Denver, the Cave of Winds, and Garden of the Gods -- all the usual tourist stops. The images have good contrast and the compiler has carefully labeled each image in a neat hand, elevating this above standard tourist albums. An excellent example of cross-country tourist travel at the turn of the century.

Price: $500.00