Photo Album from an Around-the-World Cruise on the S.S. Cleveland, 1910, Including Images of Hawaii, Japan, Borneo, Java, Burma, India, Ceylon, and More

10" x 14" black leather album containing 275 photographs (ranging in size from ca. 3.5" x 5.5" to 6" x 8") and 5 large (8" x 10.25") autochroms. These high-quality images document one of the earliest commercial around-the-world cruises. American tour operator Frank C. Clark chartered the Hamburg-American Line ship S.S. Cleveland for his first world cruise, which departed from New York, in October 1909. That cruise landed in San Francisco on January 31, 1910, and departed for its second three-month voyage--the one shown here--on February 5, 1910. According to blogger Peter Romasckiewicz, "Clark’s pair of world tours generated significant amounts of publicity, with thousands appearing in San Francisco to send the ship off." A Honolulu newspaper described the ship's arrival and the passengers' activities there in considerable detail, suggesting such a large tour group (750 people) was still quite a novelty. The album includes a combination of professional and non-professional (but nice) photographs. A large number are captioned in the negative and credited "Grant Photo," with a negative number. We have not been able to identify this photographer or find other copies of the images, so it is possible Grant was the compiler of this album. Alternatively, he or she may have been a ship's photographer (though extensive searching did not confirm this). The five lovely autochroms are all of scenes in India and are credited P.Z. (Photochom Zurich). The album begins with a few very nice California images, followed by 20 photos taken in Hawaii. Some shipboard photographs identify some of the passengers. The next stop was Japan, where they visited Yokohama, Tokyo, Nikko, Kyoto, Kobe, and Nagaskai. There are many good street scenes and shots of the countryside and local people as well as views of temples, statues, and other attractions. Stops in Hong Kong and Canton appear to have been brief. There are some good images from Borneo, Java, and Burma, followed by an extensive section featuring India -- including Calcutta, Benares, Cawnpore, Agra, and Bombay. The remainder of the album shows relatively short visits to Ceylon, Egypt, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Item #22861

Price: $800.00