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Extensively captioned Mexico Photo album documenting a American tourist from Arizona's 1945 journey to Mexico and other Mexican landmarks during the World War II era. Contains 158 silver gelatin vernacular photographs plus approximately 10 hand-colored prints and 10 pieces of tourist ephemera. Accompanied by long-form handwritten captions that comment on the topography, history, cultural practices, and peoples of Mexico. Locations depicted include Mexico City, Puebla, Cuernavaca, Oaxaca, Teotihuacan, Xochimilco, and the volcano Parícutin. The album begins with images of a bustling public market scene, captioned: "Van with the McPhersons (from Prescott) in the public market, dry goods, yardage, huaraches and vegetables, fruits and baskets plus odors and heat and flies - but interesting nevertheless." Later pages document the active eruption of Parícutin, a volcano that emerged in a cornfield in 1943, capturing thick plumes of smoke and lava with notes like, "Volumes of smoke roll hundreds of feet into the air, continuously; black ashes fall night and day, covering acres, destroying crops and animal life." Other photos show travelers observing the lava's glow and horseback riding near the volcano. Mexico City's landmarks feature heavily, including the monumental fountain "La Flechadora," the Aztec sacrificial stone at the National Museum ("Egyptian influence is markedly noticeable."), and a colorful canal scene in Xochimilco: "Sunday is a very busy day at Xochimilco." Religious architecture is highlighted in Puebla and Cuernavaca, with baroque altars such as the Temple of San Francisco Acatepec and the Chapel of the Rosary, described as "23 carat gold leaf from floor to ceiling. considered the eighth wonder of the Catholic World." The traveler also visited archaeological ruins, including the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan ("242 steps to climb and you are on the top of the world") and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, featuring large serpent-head carvings described as "hand carved from solid rock." Among the most vivid cultural depictions are scenes of bullfighting in Mexico City's Plaza de Toros: "The shafts are all colors, seemed to be crepe paper covered but have wicked steel blades," and later: "The kill!! Horrible and time to leave - although the show goes on - to the extent of eight bulls." Two color-tinted photo postcards depict everyday Indigenous life: one of a woman making tortillas in Oaxaca, and another labeled "Danzas de Colon, Qro." shows a festival gathering in Indigenous dress and feathered regalia. The album concludes with a Santa Fe Railroad dining car menu dated 1943 and a color menu from Albuquerque's Court Cafe showing staged images of Native Americans in ceremonial garb. Includes further ephemera from railroad companies, including a Pullman train ticket stub from Orange, CA to Phoenix, AZ. Album disbound with album pages edges brittle and chipped throughout, but Photographs are largely unaffected and in very good condition,
Seller Inventory # 22452
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