(RUSSIA--SIBERIA) An album with 84 photographs documenting the reconstruction of two ships at Lake Baikal to continue the Trans-Siberian Railroad. This extraordinary album documents the reconstruction of the ice-breaking ferry SS Baikal and her sister ship, the Angara designed to link passengers on the Trans-Siberian Railroad across the enormous Lake Baikal. Both were built more than 6,000 miles away, color coded (one side was black and the other white) and deconstructed (6,900 parts), and then rebuilt on the shores of Lake Baikal. The images document engineers and construction foremen, prisoners and exiles, peasants, military guards, rail workers, and interesting views of peasant villages and other surrounds, all laboring in the extremes of the Siberian landscape. One of the subjects of the first image in the album has been identified as Isaac O'Henry, the chief engineer for the project and possibly the original owner of this album. Several photos document Celebration Day with images taken during the loading of the first rail cars into the belly of the SS Baikal. After 1 1/2 years of labor, the SS Baikal was launched into the lake on June 29th, 1899. Silver prints, the images measuring 2 1/2x3 3/4 to 5 1/2x8 1/2 inches (6.3x9.5 to 14x21.6 cm.), and the reverse, mounted recto/verso. Oblong 4to, cloth boards with a leather backstrip. 1897-99
