Oblong duodecimo (ca. 13,6x17 cm). With 24 card stock leaves (2 blank). With 132 original gelatin silver photographs with the larger ones from ca. 8,7x11,9 cm (3 ½ x 4 ¾ in) to ca. 7,8x5,3 cm (3 x 2 in) and the smaller ones from ca. 4,4x6,5 cm (1 ¾ x 2 ½ in) to ca. 5,4x3,5 cm (2 x 1 ¼ in). No captions. Period green full cloth album. The inner side of the front cover with a period black ink inscription: “Podgorye, Petrograd Guberniya. Summer 1913” (in Russian). Binding rubbed and loose, photos mildly age-toned, but overall a very good album of strong, interesting photos.

An attractive collection of original photographs taken by an upper-class Russian woman during her summer vacation in the village of Podgorye, Batetsky District, Novgorod Oblast, Russia, in 1913. At the time, the village was part of the Luzhsky Uyezd of the Saint Petersburg Governorate (later Petrograd), remaining under its administration until 1927.

The album features 132 original gelatin silver photographs, with over 100 excellent images illustrating early, pre-revolutionary Podgorye. The collection opens with twenty well-executed, lively photos of the compiler’s family and friends posing next to their summer house, on a horse carriage, and in the garden of their estate. Three large rural group photos show village children and women in rubashkas and sarafans joyfully holding ducks and smiling for the camera. Especially interesting are the photographs of a local cemetery and the now-ruined Resurrection Church (1763) in its pre-damaged condition. The rest of the photos mostly include close-up portraits of the compiler’s friends & villagers, general views of Podgorye (with clearly visible streets and izbas), and vibrant rural scenes of peasants working in fields, tending beehives, swimming in lakes, playing with chickens, sailing boats, and sweeping streets.

About thirty photos at the rear likely document the compiler’s trip to the nearby village of Toroshkovichi. The images capture the traveling party & their friends (on the road, dining, resting, &c) and locals posing next to their izbas, in the streets, and with livestock. There’s also an interesting photograph showing a rare, early view of the local Resurrection Church (1906). Overall, historically interesting collection of original photographs illustrating pre-revolutionary rural life in Podgorye and the nearby village of Toroshkovichi.