1937 WESTERN NATIONAL PARKS ROAD TRIP PHOTO ALBUM

Item #887

This album carefully documents the vistas viewed on the road trip that took in at least twelve states and possibly more.

35 leaves/70 pages - the first, the fifth, and the last fourteen leaves are entirely blank; 205 black and white photographs, the majority 2 1/2” x 3 1/2” but some are larger; five missing, four damaged. All pages are intact and undamaged, no chipping or even minor creasing. The most unattractive part is the faux-brown leather cover, embossed with gold finials - both front and rear covers are damaged at the spine, with the front cover especially loose and worn at the front edge. Still, the cover has done a very good job for 85 years of protecting the precious contents. The lace binding is still present.

Highlights include the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, Sequoia National Park, Yosemite Park, and Boulder Dam. The travelers seem to have had a particular interest in botany, geology, monuments and obelisks, and churches and chapels, and planned their trip accordingly.

The album is exceptional in layout, arrangement and condition. The corner tabbing was expertly done and there is no apparent loosening, and each page is arranged just so. The landscape photography is not expert but amateur at a high level. Most impressive are the captions, typed exactly along the lower white border of each photo - that took some work!

The album also has half a dozen stickers, from various national parks visited, pasted in. All have an animal or plant theme, are octagonal in shape, and bear the date ’1937’ in the body of the sticker (printed, not handwritten).

Two inserts have been tucked in:
A large family photograph - two adults, two kids - on Mirror Lake, in Yosemite National Park

A small, handmade 12-page booklet (4 5/8” h x 5 3/4” w), titled “Garden of the Gods”, with 7 black and white photos of dramatic rock formations from that site in the Colorado Springs area. One page is blank, but no photographs are missing, and each photo is embellished on one side with an simple illustration of a native flower. The whole is tied and daintily bound with a pretty pine green and lavender bow.

Sites visited include:

Pinehurst/Southern Pines, NC; Shenandoah N.P., VA; Allegheny Mountains, PA; Springfield, IL; Pike’s Peak, CO; Continental Divide marker, Milner Pass, CO; Ogden Monument at Fort Riley, KS (‘geographical center of the United States’); Ritchfield, UT; Kaibob Lodge, AZ; Glendale/Hollywood/Pasadena/Catalina, CA; Cody, WY; Burlington, IA.

Price: $400.00