Oblong Folio album (ca. 26x33 cm). 50 card stock leaves (21 blank). With 37 mounted original gelatin silver photographs, with larger ones ca. 18,9x23,9 (7 ½ x 9 ½ in) and smaller ones from ca. 11,6x16,8 (4 ½ x 6 ½ in) to ca. 9x11,8 cm (3 ½ x 4 ½ in). Most photos signed and numbered in negative. Period full black pebbled cloth album fastened with a string; with the gilt-tooled generic title “Photographs” on the front cover; with the white ink gift inscription on the front free endpaper: “To Mr. F. G. Thaw Cruise Director “C.P.S.S “Empress of France” Mediterranean Cruise 1926 With the Compliments of Associated Screen News LTD. Montreal, Canada.” Closed tears of a couple of leaves, several photos with mild silvering, but overall a very good album with strong, interesting photos.

Historically interesting album with large-size professional photos likely taken by an Associated Screen News LTD employee during a voyage from New York to the Mediterranean onboard C.P.S.S. “Empress of France” in 1926. According to the inscription on the front free endpaper, the album was gifted to Mr. F. G. Thaw (ca. 1879-after 1938), cruise director of the C.P.S.S. “Empress of France.”

The Empress of France (1913–scrapped in 1934) departed New York on February 9, 1926, for a 64-day Mediterranean cruise, visiting 15 countries and 16 ports of call. The 27,500-ton oil-burning liner carried over 450 passengers on a journey that included 19 days in Palestine and Egypt, along with extended stopovers in Europe. The itinerary featured stops in Madeira, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar, continuing to Algiers, Syracuse, Athens, and Constantinople, followed by visits to Beirut, Haifa, Alexandria, Venice, Naples, Monaco, and concluding at Cherbourg and Southampton.

The album contains thirty-seven rare original photographs taken during the cruise in the mid-winter and early spring of 1926. The collection opens with three excellent large-size images, showing the “Empress of France” on deck, the steamer’s uniformed crew, and the travelling party (11 men and 2 women) of the Associated Screen News LTD, posing for a group photograph.

About eighteen photos illustrate the steamer’s stopovers along the southern and southeastern Mediterranean coasts. Seven excellent photographs of Egypt, feature Opera Square and Shepheard’s famous hotel (with the nearby shop signs “Wassar & Hajj,“ “Kodak,” “Maspero Freres LTD”) in Cairo, Sphynx and pyramids in Giza, a group of rabbis, and camel caravans. Six well-executed photos from the Holy Land show Jerusalem (King David’s Tomb & Jaffa Gate with an Ottoman flag), Tiberias (the Great Mosque), and Nazareth (with the traveling group happily posing on the beach). An interesting scene from Jerusalem captures the bustling Jaffa Street, alive with express wagons, horseback riders, pedestrians, and a waving flag. There are also five photos of Algiers, depicting a city panorama, the Mosque of Djamaʽa el Djedid, a street merchant selling Algerian fabrics, and a portrait of a local man holding a baby in rags.

About fifteen photos document the Empress’s stopovers in Europe. Six excellent photographs from Italy show Rome (Colosseum, Castel Sant’ Angelo, Piazza Venezia), Venice (Grand Canal), and Naples (crowded Piazza Vittoria). Three rare, early photos of Spain document the Land Gate in Cadiz and the Archeological Museum in Seville. There are also two well-executed images from Portugal, showing King Pedro IV Square, busy with trams, cars, and pedestrians, and Benformoso St. (with a butcher, along with others, curiously observing the photographer) in Lisbon.

The rest of the photos mostly capture the Rock of Gibraltar, Casino de Monte Carlo, and Syntagma Square in Athens. Overall, a historically interesting album illustrating an early voyage from New York to the Mediterranean.