Apr 18, 2019 - Sale 2506

Sale 2506 - Lot 249

Price Realized: $ 2,210
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(PUERTO RICO)
Album with 130 photographs depicting the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, including its hardworking citizens, busy cities, and civic projects undertaken by its American Governor, Beekman Winthrop.
The album is chock-a-block with lively photographs that record colonization of the island by American political interests and engineering projects--railroads, bridges, roads--constructed during this early period (the American who compiled and shot most of the photographs in the album may have been an engineer). Commercially-produced picturesque scenes are also included. Cyanotypes (10), printing-out paper (5), and silver prints (115), the images measuring 3 1/4x4 to 4 1/2x6 1/2 inches (8.3x10.1 to 11.4x16.5 cm.), mounted recto/verso. Oblong 4to, shellacked morocco, corners bumped. Circa 1900-08

Additional Details

Winthrop (1874-1940) was appointed Governor and General Commander of Puerto Rico by his friend, President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1904. He quickly implemented political and social changes, such as introducing locally elected officials into the government, and building a railroad system. Apparently Mrs. Winthrop's fluency in Spanish made her popular among the local population.