(NEW ENGLAND--TRANSPORTATION AND DAILY LIFE) Album with 55 photographs by a talented commercial photographer of Southbridge, Massachusetts and its environs. The pictures range from newly manufactured trolley cars to proto-modernist views of track work weaving through the countryside; plus interior views of the power plant; celebratory scenes of townspeople; majestic Victorian houses; and pastoral studies that recall Constable's landscape paintings. Warm-toned silver prints, the images measuring 7 3/8x9 1/2 inches (18.8x24.1 cm.), several with titles, in ink, on mount recto. Oblong 4to, leatherette. Circa 1895
A remarkable album noteworthy for its range of accomplished photographs. The pictures capture an important historic period in which a small agricultural town transitioned to one primed for manufacturing. Views of new forms of transportation, trolley cars, are represented alongside lush landscapes while abstract scenes of track work and interiors of a power plant counterpose scenes of flags waving and folks celebrating Independence Day.
