Oblong Folio (ca. 28,5x38,5 cm). 48 stiff card leaves. Over a hundred gelatin silver prints, many by a cruise ship photographer, including eleven large images ca. 18x23 cm (7x9 in), and over sixty ca. 11x15,5 cm (4 ¼ x 6 ¼ in). Over thirty images are captioned in negative and bear a blind stamp “White Star Line. Homeric Cruises Copyright.” With several real photo postcards and numerous ephemera, cut-out photo portraits of the travelers and silhouettes of the cruise ships. With two period handwritten titles marking two cruises; all images with period handwritten captions. Period decorative tapa cloth album with gilt lettered title “Aloha. Hawaii” on the front cover, spine is stitched through on top and bottom with a string. Corners slightly bumped, first leaf loosely inserted, but overall a very good album with strong images.

Interesting private keepsake album illustrating two cruises – a world cruise on board RMS “Empress of Britain,” one of the first travels of this liner (in service since 1931), and a cruise around the Caribbean on board RMS “Homeric.” The album was compiled by a young British girl, Frances Eileen Berkswell Bond who went on both cruises with her family and friends. Interesting images from the first cruise include large professionally taken views of the Bangkok Temples (Temple of the Sleeping Buddah and Temple of the Emeral Buddah), Taj Mahal, Panama Canal, and the Acropolis; several large group portraits of the “Empress of Britain’s” passengers, including two of the parties dressed for fancy balls (in “Egyptian” and “Chinese-Japanese” styles); views of Jerusalem, Cairo and the pyramids, feluccas on the Nile, burning ghat in Bombay, Colombo harbour and Mount Lavinia beach; locals washing laundry in a Batavia canal; a scene of the crossing the Line celebration on board the “Empress of Britain;” a native hut in Batavia; the Forbidden City of Beijing; Great Wall of China; the Aloha Tower and Waikiki Beach in Honolulu; a street in San Francisco; Panama Canal administration building in Balboa; and others. A number of images portray Eileen, her family and friends, several pieces of ephemera relate to the ship’s tennis tournament which Eileen took part in and won (in the mixed doubles). There is also an interesting printed “Certificate” given to Eileen by “Neptune, the Great God of all the High Seas” after crossing the Equator and appointing her “one of our most worthy subjects.”

The second cruise is illustrated in 37 original photos apparently produced by the ship’s photographer and bearing a blind stamp “White Star Line. Homeric Cruises Copyright.” Interesting images show the harbour and water tanks at Tenerife, harbor of St. Lucia, swimming pool deck of RMS Homeric, a panorama and a view of the sponge market in Nassau (Bahamas), swimming pool of the Bournemouth Club in Jamaica, the statue of Columbus at Colon (Panama), street views of Cartagena, photos of a harbor and a street of La Guaira (Venezuela), mountain scenery “En route to Caracas,” coconut and sugarcane plantations in Trinidad and Barbados, Pitch Lake on Trinidad, and others (Madeira, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Monaco, Monte Carlo, Ajaccio, Algiers, and Tangier). Over a dozen images portray the travelers and their friends, including a large photo of participants of a fancy dress ball “held in Mid. Atlantic;” there are also a number of cut out portraits of the ship’s passengers and crew. The album closes with a large wedding portrait of the album’s compiler with her husband.

Overall, a vivid picturesque representation of ocean cruises in the early thirties.