Oblong Octavo album (ca. 16,1x23,9 cm). 21 card stock leaves. With 38 mounted gelatin silver photos from ca. 10,7x15 cm (4 ¼ x 6 in) to ca. 6,4x10,3 cm (2 ½ x 4 ¼ in). Three photos with captions in negative (in Dutch), five photos are numbered in negative. Period brown crocodile skin patterned papered boards, fastened with a string. Front board with a vertical crack, a few photos with mild silvering, but overall a very good album with strong interesting photos.

Historically interesting collection of lively vernacular photographs, illustrating an early trip to Medan, the capital of Northern Sumatra, during the Dutch colonial rule in the 1920s-1930s.

According to the photographs, the compiler was a Dutch traveler who began his journey in downtown Medan, traversed through the city center, and took the Medan railway to reach Port Belawan. There, he likely boarded an SS and followed a typical route to Jakarta (then Batavia).

The collection features thirty-eight vibrant views of Indonesia, with ca. thirty excellent photographs showing colonial Medan. Five well-executed close-up photos depict the Javanese Bank (1907), the City Hall (1908), the AVROs building (1909), the Grand Mosque (1909), the Harrison & Crossfield Building (1909), and the Post and Telegraph Office (1911). Two candid urban scenes vividly portray Indonesian vegetable hawkers selling products from baskets & carts and an interesting gathering of local coolies (likely AVROs recruits), some in white costumes and some bare-chested, busily working by the river and clustered by a nearby house. There are also about ten lively panoramic views of Lapangan Merdeka and Kesawan Street showing thatched-roof houses, hotels (Hotel de Boer, etc.), numerous shops with English & Chinese signs (“Bie & Co,” “Sumatra Stores LTD,” “E. Dunlor & Co,” “Cornfields,” “M. Goldenberg & Co,” “Damall & Co,” “Tokomadras,” C. J. Kleingrothe,” “Jamatmal Gurbamall & Co,” “Guan Wan,” etc.), locals in white suits & traditional dresses, merchants hiding under the shade of trees, and cars with clearly visible license plates. The rest of the Medanese photos depict a Medan railway station and Port Belawan, showing people boarding and waving from the decks of SS Rumphius and SS Melchior Treub.

Eight photos likely illustrate the compiler’s trip to Jakarta. Three candid vernacular group photographs portray three armed men joyfully parading a captured monkey, spectators watching a racecourse, and a local woman alongside a girl in traditional attire standing in a lively street. Especially interesting is an individual full-body portrait of a Nagarathar man with white face paint, wearing a white dhoti and angavastram and posing with an umbrella. Other photos depict a local bridge, animals from a Jakarta zoo, and scenes from aboard the SS during the journey from Port Belawan. Overall, historically interesting album of thirty-eight gelatin silver photographs documenting an early trip to Indonesia.