Guadalajara, Guaymas, San Blas, Tequila, Acapulco and Cozumel in an American Travel Album, 1958

Mexico Travel Album Tourism and Leisure

Photograph

Mexico travel photo album containing more than 150 photographs, 1958 to 1961, documenting an American journey through cities, coastal settlements, fishing communities, archaeological and historic sites, markets, and rural landscapes during the rapid expansion of postwar tourism to Mexico. The photographer traveled well beyond a single resort itinerary, recording Guadalajara, Guaymas, San Blas, Tequila, Acapulco, Cozumel, and other locations while repeatedly turning the camera toward local residents, vernacular buildings, working waterfronts, boats, vegetation, and roadside landscapes. Printed processing dates of “Dec. 58” and “Jan. 61” establish at least two photographic episodes, while handwritten captions trace portions of the route and identify places and people encountered along it.

Travel photo album of more than 150 color and black and white snapshots, most approximately 3.5 x 3.5 inches, Mexico and one page at an unidentified Southeast Asian location, 1958 to 1961. The Mexico photographs range from city streets and groups of travelers to fishing boats, harbors, lagoons, markets, mountains, tropical vegetation, stone buildings, construction, archaeological or historic architecture, and portraits of local residents. Handwritten captions identify “San Blas,” “Guadalajara,” “Guaymas,” “Travel thru Mexico,” “Tequila,” “Cuernavaca,” “Lerma, Cozumel,” and “Acapulco, Cozumel ’61,” while another photograph of three women wearing traditional dress is captioned “Mayan women.” A photograph identified “Tequila” records an open landscape and roadside setting, while the Guaymas sequence includes fishing vessels and a man standing among their masts and rigging. Other images follow waterways by small boat, showing passengers, settlements along the banks, dense tropical growth, and working boats. The photographer also recorded companions and acquaintances, including a man identified in a caption apparently reading “Ralph Glad hill,” as well as paired portraits captioned “Lerma, Cozumel” and “Bathing 30 ’61.” A group of black and white photographs records stone structures in varying states of construction or repair, including one view captioned “My house as purchased.” The final approximately ten photographs depart abruptly from the Mexican itinerary and depict an unidentified Southeast Asian village or settlement.

The album belongs to a period when Mexico had become one of the principal foreign destinations for American travelers, following decades of government investment in highways, hotels, archaeological tourism, resort development, and international promotion. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, improved road and air connections allowed foreign visitors to construct itineraries extending from major cities into Pacific ports, smaller towns, archaeological sites, and newly developing coastal destinations. The photographs register that mobility directly: named tourist centers sit beside fishing communities, working harbors, rural roads, vernacular houses, market activity, and portraits of residents encountered during travel. Moderate handling wear to the album and mounts; photographs with occasional fading, color shift, surface wear, and minor edge wear, with several color prints showing pronounced red or magenta shift. Overall in good condition. A substantial photographic record of postwar American travel through Mexico, preserving the movement between established tourist destinations and local communities before mass international tourism transformed many of the coastal places represented here.

Item #23766

Price: $480.00