Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -
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Sale 2708 - Lot 223

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(CUBA.) Photo album of a 1904 trip to Cuba. Approximately 160 photographs laid down on 19 album leaves, with typed captions for each. Oblong 4to, 10 x 13¼ inches, original limp sheep, moderate wear; two photos detached, minor wear to contents. Cuba, 1904
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Additional Details

A charming mix of Havana and Santiago street views and scenes from the Cuban countryside. Most of these images are snapshots, likely by the compiler; some are commercial images by G. Blain and Ramon Corral of Havana. The arrangement is tidy, and more artful than typical of an album from this period. Some of the snapshots show rail lines (the Cuban Eastern Railroad was completed in 1904); two show mahogany logs awaiting shipment alongside the railroad tracks. A series of snapshots shows a visit to one Mr. Ysalque's plantation in Guantanamo. Several show the American ships in the Atlantic Squadron anchored off Cuba. One commercial view shows St. Tomas Street in Santiago, with large "Fotografia" signs stretching across the streets.

The compiler, Constantine A. Hege (1843-1914), was an iron-mill owner in Salem, NC who also held patents for coffee harvesting. Hege and his daughter Rosa (1883-1923) left for their trip to Cuba on 16 February 1904, per the Winston-Salem Union-Republican of two days later. The album begins with a picture of Hege's orange grove, and 4 other images from their first stop in Florida.

With--5 mounted photographs of Cuba, most about 4 x 9 inches, one of them showing 14 young men posed among the wreckage of the Maine, captioned "Havana, Christmas 1900."

And--a printed prospectus, "The Plantation of Herradura, Located in the Province of Pinar del Rio." Folding map, illustrations. 16 pages. Oblong 4to, 8¾ x 13 inches, original illustrated wrappers, minor wear; vertical folds. No place, circa 1903. None traced at auction; OCLC has a record but no holdings.

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