Oblong Quarto album ca. 17,8x28,6 cm (7x11 ¼ in). 49 card stock leaves (13 blank). With ca. 249 mounted original gelatin silver photographs from ca. 11,9x17,3 cm (4 ¾ x 6 3/4 in) to ca. 1x1 cm (0 ½ x 0 ½ in). Three photos with period English captions in negatives, including two dated. Period full leather album fastened with a string; gilt-lettered generic title “Photographs” on the front cover. Binding worn, one photo with minor tears at the edges, occasional age-toning, but otherwise a very good album with strong, interesting photos.

Historically interesting private collection of original photographs illustrating the daily life of a pioneer in Nucla, Montrose County, Colorado.

The town of Nucla was founded as a socialist colony in the wake of the Panic of 1893 by the Colorado Cooperative Company in 1904. Intended as the “nucleus” of a regional agricultural and mining economy, it was deliberately established on rocky ground to preserve fertile land for farming. By the 1920s the commune had transitioned into private ownership, and in the mid-20th century the town gained wider recognition as a center of uranium mining.

As follows from the photographs, the compiler was a young local woman, a graduate of Nucla High School (class of 1918). The images primarily document her daily life in Nucla, along with a family car trip across Colorado.

The album contains 249 original gelatin silver photographs, with about sixty images showing early Nucla. The opening large-size photo shows Nucla High School Graduates in front of the school building, along with an excellent group portrait taken indoors. Identified images include the Union Congregational Church and a rare Centre Street view with a clearly visible sign for the Nucla Hotel. Other lively vernacular photographs show the compiler with friends and relatives posing in the streets, at house construction sites, by automobiles, and on horseback. The series also depicts Nucla High School students in costumes posing in front of the school and Arps Right Price Store.

The rest of the photographs were apparently taken during a family journey across the state, with views of Colorado Springs (Pike’s Peak Avenue, Colorado College), Denver (Colorado State Capitol, Daniel Fisher Department Store), Telluride (Public School), Durango (High School), and Pueblo (County Court House).

The collection also includes several images of the University of Nebraska, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in New Haven, Connecticut, a military parade, automobiles with clearly visible license plates, and a rare view of the compiler at work as a telephone switchboard operator.

Overall, historically interesting private collection of original photographs illustrating the daily life of a pioneer in Nucla, Montrose County, Colorado.