Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Unique Presentation Photo Album from Hugh S. Davis to Waite Phillips*. Based on an adventurous journey to Africa with Martin and Osa Johnson** [WITH CREATIVE PHOTO-MONTAGE AND COLORED PRINTS AFTER ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS BY HUGH S. DAVIS]

Davis, Hugh S. (Photographs by)

NP: NP, [1935]. Original photograph(s). Leather_bound. Folio (14 1/2 x 16"). [24] leaves. Original spiral bound crocodile skin, with pyrographed lettering to front cover. Tissue guarded leaves.

Unique photo-album from American traveller and explorer Hugh S. Davis to his friend Waite Phillips, a successful petroleum businessman. In the handwritten letter featured at the beginning of the album, Davis states the following:

"Dear friend,

These few pictures I have enlarged and colored from negatives I secured while with Martin and Osa Johnson in Africa during the year nineteen hundred and thirthy three.

I had a wonderful time taking them (the pictures) and I enjoyed the works spent fixing them as they are, because I know that you have a desire to go into the game country of Africa and see for yourself.

You may wish to frame some of them - do so if they will add a bit of attraction to the walls of your home, for then you can adventure into their very depths and look beyond the beyond.

Let us plan an evening or two when I can show you some motion pictures of that country as seen through the eyes of an Oklahoman..."

The end of the letter is chipped and cannot be deciphered.

This unique photo-album is composed of thirteen leaves (10 3/4 x 13 3/4") on photo paper by Eastman, each with photo-montage and double exposure, with the right side being a handwritten travelogue by Hugh S. Davis.

The leaves are intertwined with eleven spectacular color prints (10 3/4 x 13 3/4") on textured cardboard, depicting the following views:

- "Yonder Lies Adventure" (seascape: sun breaking through clouds above a peaceful sea)
- The Ndoto mountains - Kenya
- Along the Tana River - Kenya
- Rindilly natives at a water-hole - Kenya
- Impala - Tanganyika
- Wild Guinea Fowl - Kenya
- Wildeest or Gnu - Tanganyika
- Lions resting - Tanganyika
- Zebra - Tanganyika
- Giraffe - Tanganyika
- Thompson's gazelle - Tanganyika

This memorable African journey became the basis of Martin and Osa Johnson's 1935 book: "Over African Jungles: The Record of a Glorious Adventure Over the Big Game Country of Africa. 60,000 Miles by Airplane."

Some rubbing along edges of crocodile skin. A couple of leaves disbound but present. Letter from the author chipped at bottom. Most tissue-guards have tears and or moderate chipping. This album is in overall good- to very good condition. g- to vg. Item #45620

* Waite Phillips (1883-1964) was an American petroleum businessman who created a fully integrated operation that combined petroleum producing, refining and marketing. With headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he also developed several office complexes and engaged in banking and ranching. Phillips was a philanthropist for both local Tulsa institutions and national causes. In Tulsa he built a 72-room mansion for his residence, which he later donated to the city; it became the Philbrook Museum of Art. He gave 127,000 acres (510 km2) of his favorite ranch in New Mexico to the Boy Scouts of America, together with an office building as part of its endowment. The ranch is now Philmont Scout Ranch, one of the largest youth camps in the world. Phillips also made a substantial bequest to the University of Southern California, which named a building after him.

** Martin Elmer Johnson (1884-1937) and his wife Osa Helen Johnson (1894-1953) were American adventurers and documentary filmmakers. In the first half of the 20th century, Martin and Osa Johnson, captured the public's imagination through their films and books of adventure in exotic, faraway lands. Photographers, explorers, marketers, naturalists and authors, Martin and Osa studied the wildlife and peoples of East and Central Africa, the South Pacific Islands and British North Borneo. They explored then-unknown lands and brought back film footage and photographs, offering many Americans their first understanding of these distant lands.

Price: $2,750.00