Travel Album Documenting Mid-Century Tourism, Mobility, and Cross-Border Leisure in the Americas

Dominican Republic Cuba

Archive

This Photo Album captures a series of trips across California, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Panama, and other U.S. and North American travel documents the coastal and cross-border tourist experience of an American social group during the 1930s through the early 1950s.The album records a continuous itinerary of domestic and international travel, with dated captions such as “July 19, 1938 / On Board S/S Dixie from New Orleans, La,” situating the group within organized steamship routes linking the United States to Caribbean destinations.
Oblong photograph album measuring approximately 11.5 x 15.25 inches, containing 218 silver gelatin photographs mounted on black pages, with images ranging from approximately 2.25 x 2.75 inches to 4.5 x 5.5 inches. Photographs are captioned on album pages and occasionally on versos, identifying locations and dates. California scenes include Los Angeles, Hollywood, Olvera Street, Pasadena gardens, San Diego, Balboa Park, Mission Beach, La Jolla, Catalina Island, and the Hotel del Coronado, with recurring images of beaches, coastal views, small boats, and leisure activities such as bathing and sightseeing. Additional images depict San Francisco landmarks including Alcatraz Island and Muir Woods. Travel beyond the United States includes Tijuana, Mexico; Havana, Cuba; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and Panama City, with scenes of street activity, ruins, courtyards, and waterfronts. A sequence from Catalina Island emphasizes seaside recreation, while Caribbean and Central American images show plazas, tropical vegetation, and urban environments, including Afro-Caribbean individuals in public spaces. Additional photographs document travel to New Orleans, Utah, Salt Lake City, Nova Scotia, and a location labeled “Indian Island.”
This album documents patterns of American tourism during the mid-twentieth century, when organized travel by rail and steamship enabled access to domestic resorts and international destinations across the Americas. The combination of coastal California imagery with Caribbean and Latin American scenes reflects a broader گردش of leisure travel that emphasized climate, landscape, and cultural difference within reachable distance of the United States. The presence of consistent captions and chronological markers provides a structured record of travel routes and destinations, contributing to research on tourism history, visual culture, and cross-border movement in the pre-jet era. Light wear to album and photographs with minor handling marks; overall very good condition. A substantial visual record of American travel practices and geographic mobility across the Americas in the mid-twentieth century.

Item #22156

Price: $550.00