Oblong Quarto album (ca. 18,2x27 cm). 49 paper album leaves (2 blank). With ninety-six mounted original gelatin silver photographs from ca. 8,3x13,3 cm (3 ¼ x 5 ¼ in) to ca. 5,4x7,8 cm (2x3 in). One photo with caption (English) in negative. Period dark brown full leather album. Binding rubbed, tears of the spine and loss of a small fragment of leather on the left upper side of the rear cover, photos slightly age-toned with mild silvering, but otherwise a very good album of strong, interesting photos.

Historically interesting collection of original gelatin silver photographs, apparently taken by an American male industrial worker, and mostly documenting his journey to Aguascalientes, Mexico, in the early-1910s.

The album opens with about thirty lively vernacular photographs from Colorado, where the compiler likely lived. The images include views of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver, aerial views of the mining city of Leadville, and informal portraits of the compiler with relatives and friends playing tennis, swimming, horseback riding, and posing outdoors. The Colorado section also includes five notable photographs of an airplane on the ground and in the air, documenting one of the earliest if not the first airplane flights in Colorado.

Around forty well-executed photographs portray the compiler’s trip to Aguascalientes, apparently undertaken by train. Several images show early views of the Gran Fundición Central Mexicana, a major metallurgical and foundry enterprise founded in 1894. The foundry played a key role in regional industrial development through railway construction and local employment of roughly 1,500–2,400 workers by 1910. The photographs depict the foundry’s exterior, main entrance, and interior, with workers visible at their tasks. Especially engaging are lively street scenes from Mercado El Parián, nearby plazas, and other local markets, showing crowds of men in sombreros moving among street vendors, with shop signs and posters visible on the stalls. One striking image captures the traditional Mexican “Burning of Judas,” an Easter ritual in which effigies of Judas Iscariot are publicly displayed and then destroyed as a symbolic act of judgment. The Mexican series concludes with scenes of Mexicans and Europeans boarding a train locomotive and views of the exterior of the Aguascalientes railway station.

Other photographs in the album include a portrait of the baseball team “Portland Chiefs,” a Christmas workers’ portrait from 1910, and views of the Vermont Cottage Hotel.

Overall, historically interesting collection of original gelatin silver photographs, documenting an early journey to Aguascalientes, Mexico.