ALBUM OF PHOTOGRAPHS, ARIZONA 1915-1916

"Arizona Oct. - April, Winter 1915-1916" (manuscript title, first page of the album). 7" x 11" (oblong format), (50) black paper album leaves, 222 original photographs pasted / glued in, each of the 50 rectos with between 3 and 8 photographs (4-6, usually), several formats employed, primarily 2" x 3", 3" x 4 1/2", 3 1/2" x 5 3/4" (all measurements approximate, and variations within each format, and including blank margins), most but not all of the compositions horizontal format. The album is annotated but sparingly, alas, in white ink, and at its outset only: "Irrigation Ditches" (first recto), "Evans School," "Main St. Mesa, Ari." (both, second recto), "'Ted' Center," "'Val' Macy John Wyeth," "'Strat,'" "Walter Gardner," ""Strat,'" "Walter Gardner," "'Strat,' 'Bush,' 'Ted,'" "'Strat'" (all, third recto). The photographs are either tipped-in at each of their four corners, or (more typically) laid down across their length and width. The first two leaves are neatly detached at their inner hinge; the occasional image is loose in one or another corner; we note one photograph with a long crease at its upper edge; there is no suggestion that any photographs are missing. Cloth-over-card covers, "Photographs" gilt on the front cover, the covers badly worn: approximately one-quarter of the cloth covering of the front cover is worn away, the rear cover missing large pieces of the cloth covering at its fore- and lower edges, the cloth covering on both covers partially detached from the card. The album leaves are secured together with cord adjacent to the spine (as published), the outer hinges worn and slack, the cloth covering adjacent to the cloth tie largely missing. A unique record of life in early twentieth-century Arizona; we have not attempted to identify locales. In no particular order: pack animals; camp sites; an ostrich farm; rock formations; boxing; a harness racing facility; rudimentary desert dwellings; buggy and barns; city street scenes with Spanish Colonial / Italianate architecture; a Franciscan mission, including a viaduct; open country; a mining works (apparently); the working of cattle; a large dam (several photographs); a "Strictly Cash" sign held up to the camera by one of three individuals adorned with bowler hats, in what was apparently an entertainment. Automobiles are seen in a few photographs, horses in many, men in most, women never; cowboys, rustics, laborers. The photographs emphasize labor and its settings: preparation and movement, overseeing the fruits of one's efforts, the prospects for further improvement.