TEXAS WOMAN WINS TRIP TO MEXICO 1932 PHOTO ALBUM

Item #886

Here we have the scrapped memory-book of Ms. Anna Bell Fawcett, of Port Arthur, Texas, who quite literally won a popularity contest in the local press, and was awarded a grand prize of a trip, with a runner-up, to Mexico in the early 1930s.

Many ephemera are pasted/tucked within, as are numerous photographs. Not many are captioned but it is clear Ms. Fawcett is enamored of the place. The photography is not disciplined - many show blurred motion (like those of the landscape taken from the passing train), and some of the portraits of locals are out of focus; but the tabbed-in black-and-white postcards of the majestic ziggurats and temples of Teotihuacan are terrific.

There are also 10 smaller (2 3/4” x 1 5/8”) photographs; these were likely purchased as a set, since they have nicely printed captions on them.

Among included ephemera: maps and timetables of trains, and torn ticket stubs; peeled-off bottle labels; hotel brochures and menus; quarantine regulation cards, and other information dispensed by customs; postcards; Mexican newspapers; an envelope from a photo-development shop, two dozen negatives within; various business cards and advertisements.

Along with the roughly 60 tabbed-in photographs (3 missing, and five more tucked in), there is an extensive pile of ephemera stuffed into the back cover. Amusingly, the progress of the contest is breathlessly reported in the local paper, and carefully tracked by Ms. Fawcett, who not only pasted the articles into the book but also includes her own table, on graph paper, with the axes of dates and votes (in the hundreds of thousands), showing her edging out her chief competitor and eventual traveling companion. A two-page typewritten itinerary, provided by the contest organizers, allows one to follow the progress of their trip.

Ms. Fawcett seems greatly to have enjoyed her trip, since, judging by some of the dates on the ephemera, she would return to Mexico in 1935.

An accurate page-count is challenging, since Ms. Fawcett used strong glue and many pages are stuck together (these don’t seem to have had any content). There would appear to be approximately 35 leaves/70 pages, black, heavily chipped and worn, some loosened from the lace binding. Covers are actually in reasonably decent condition. Album 9 1/2” w X 11” h X 2” d.

A fun and innocent travelogue of a voyage of discovery and womanhood.

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