Two Late 19th Century Family Albums with 94 Original Albumen Prints
Oregon Ogle County, Illinois: ca. 1880's. Hardcover. Unique collection of albumen prints showing many landscapes, rivers, creeks and farms in Oregon and its surroundings in Ogle County, Illinois. Includes a photograph of the Mix family, few images with people. Several photographs in both albums were taken at the same location(s) but show many different views.
Vol. I: 46 albumen prints. Mix home in Oregon, Mix family photo, horse carriage crossing a small bridge on the Old Mix Farm, Mix Island, Eagle Nest Bluff (Heath where Margaret Fuller wrote her poem "Ganymede to his Eagle"), Margaret Fuller Island, view of Oregon from Eagle Nest Bluff, Ganymede Spring, Liberty Hill, Little Helen among the roses, Pine Creek (one image with a photographer setting up his tripod at the Creek), Kyte River, Poor Farm, horse carriage in front of a picket fence at the Old Home Farm, Blackhawk's Pulpit, man fishing, Rail Road Rocks, Hemenway Rocks, Fern Rock, Castle Rock, Doctor's Love, Blanche Douglass (Leathers') Steamboat on Rock River. "Blanche Douglass" written cleary visibly on starboard side of boat. Blanche Douglass Leathers was the first woman master and a steamboat captain on the Mississippi River in the late 19th and early 20th century. Douglass was also the daughter-in-law of the famous Capt. T.P. Leathers of the Natchez.
Vol. II: 48 albumen prints. Hickory Ridge Drive, Hermit Hollow, Eagle Nest Bluff, Margaret Fuller Island, Liberty Hill, The Three Sisters, R. R. Rocks (Rail Road Rocks), Mix Island, Hemenway Rocks, Hotel Rock, Emerson's Rock, Pilot Rock, Brook Rock, View near Poor Farm, Brenyan's Cascade, Kyte River & Kyte Greek, Matteson's Spring, Robertson's Glen, view near Poor Farm, Pine Creek, Cattle grazing near a Creek.
Oblong 4to. Bound in two volumes of three-quarter over brown cloth with floral stamped gold decorated spine. Raised bands. All gilt edges. Golden decorative endpapers. Majority of prints measure approx. 7 1/2" x 4 1/2". Three prints in Vol. I in different sizes. 9 1/4" x 7 1/2" (On Pine Creek), 7 3/4" x 6 1/4" (Castle Rock) and 4 3/4" x 3 1/4" (Blackhawk's Pulpit). All prints mounted on thick card stock with captions in handwriting.
Age wear on bindings. Front & rear cover and spine on Vol. I detached but present. prints in very good condition. Unique collection of Albumen prints conveying a quaint sense of the idyllic landscape and tranquillity of life in Ogle County in the 1880's. Item #33629
Price: $1,250.00