1907 Photograph Album - Vistis To Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wyoming, Virginia, Utah

JOHN & FLORA (?)

Publication: 1907,

7 3/4" x 5 3/4" album in pebbled leather and containing 65 black and white photographs attached directly to sleeves. Almost all photos measure 6" x 3," with a few exceptions (2 1/2" x 3;" 4" x 3," 4" x 2 1/2"). Most of the photographs are tissue guarded and each picture is identified in neatly written white ink.

The first page identifies the compiler ... "To Mother,/From/John and Flora." This is followed by pictures of Mt. Vernon (George Washington's estate in Virginia) ... the front facade, rear, conservatory and grounds complete with behatted women, most with long, dark flowing skirts and a white blouse. The album also covers patriotic sites in Philadelphia to include the "Court of Honor," the Elks  Convention in Philadelphia, the graveyard where Benjamin Franklin is buried, Betsy Ross' house, as well as several pictures of Independence Hall. Then a lovely image of the Union Pacific train depot in Cheyenne, Wyoming; Crossing the Alleghenys in Western Pennsylvania, the Mormon Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City, the Orphan Children’s Home in Womelsdorf, PA. Then visits to a pair of cousins, one scowling dowager, the other pixie-grinning in Sheridan, Pennsylvania, and more relatives and their homes. The travelers then head West and the album features pictures of Charles Butters' Cyanide Reduction Works in Virginia City, Nevada, a derailed steam engine with John ,the album’s compiler  (who appears elsewhere in the album captioned "me," and arguably the owner of the railroad?!) standing in front of the wrecked locomotive, holding up the now-detached train number 2158, with the caption: "When my engine 'got tired.'" Another photo gathers the whole train crew, stacked up atop the engine high like a pile of human coal, with an entirely new locomotive (this one Number 2185), followed by a picture of the Railroad Station at Mound House. Then "Moonlight on the Truckee River, Reno, Nev." and the "New Concrete Bridge over the Truckee River." Soon comes a shot of an Indian infant on a papoose board; several pictures of the furnace in Sheridan, Pennsylvania,  a "'Ten Mule Team' Hauling Grain to Virginia City, Mound House;" Piute "Sagebrush Belles" and "Piute Squaw and Papoose." Photographs are clear and bright. A quaint collection of early 1900 photographs.