Original Vernacular Photo Album of a Trip from Mankato, Minnesota, to British Columbia
Mankato, MN et al: 1890. Very Good. Item #21552
Mankato, MN, et al: ca. 1890s. Small oblong octavo (14x18cm.); publisher's grey card wrappers lettered in white; [16]ll. of pale grey stock to which are mounted sixteen (16) silver gelatin snapshots (all ca. 8x8cm.) on rectos only, usually with manuscript captions on facing page. Some photographs a bit overexposed at margins, else an exceptional album in Near Fine condition. Retains the album seller's ticket inside rear cover, "Ward's Souvenir Album" rubberstamped no. 11.
Small souvenir album capturing the rather long journey from Mankato, Minnesota, to British Columbia. The first nine photographs appear to have been taken in the former location, possibly the photographer's home, the images depicting scenes around a woodframe house and a young girl astride a horse, before turning outward to views of the Minnesota River from the bluff of North Mankato, the cows on said bluff, Minneopa Falls, and the Minnesota River Bridge. The next location captured is a train station between Denver and Colorado Springs, presumably Pikes Peak looming in the background. The next shot shows a rather large group of people, both men and women, walking along the railroad tracks through Royal Gorge, Colorado, the bank of the Arkansas River just a few feet to their left. The following photograph jumps from the Gorge to the Cawston Ostrich Farm in Pasadena, California, where a rather substantial clutch of ostriches peer out at the photographer from behind their enclosure's gate. The farm, the first of its kind, opened in 1886 to meet the demand for newly-fashionable ostrich feathers and was immediately a major tourist attraction. Two photographs follow of a horse-back ride across Mt. Lowe, a peak in the southern folds of the San Gabriel Mountains, California. The concluding two photographs show the train ride from northern California en route to Portland, Oregon, and finally a view of Mt. Sir Donald, "highest peak of the Selkirk mountain, British Columbia."
Price: $250.00