Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

The European Tour, Yosemite, and Minnesota photograph album contains pictures of scenes in various European countries, reproductions of famous paintings, portraits of prominent Europeans, and comic strips. Many of the visual items are engravings and colored illustrations.

The European Tour, Yosemite, and Minnesota photograph album (27cm x 34cm) contains around 780 photographs, engravings, and illustrations of scenes, people, architecture and artwork from various European countries, Great Britain, and the United States. Newspaper clippings and comic strips appear at the end. Most of the photographs appear to be commercially produced prints of the type made for tourists, and many of the illustrations are in series related to a particular place. The images range in size from full page to smaller items pasted in as many as 11 or 12 to a page. Original covers are missing.

Countries represented in the photographs include present-day Turkey, Greece, Italy, Germany, France, and Great Britain around the 1870s. Bird's-eye views, street scenes, landmarks such as religious buildings and ancient structures (particularly in Athens and Rome), famous paintings and sculptures, bas reliefs, and other works of art predominate. Of interest are a group of pictures showing traditional Neapolitan funeral costume, and a photograph of Mount Vesuvius erupting in 1872. Portraits of local ethnic "types" in traditional dress, political and religious leaders, and royalty are also present. The engravings and other illustrations, sometimes colored, often depict similar scenes and landmarks.

The final pages contain photographs taken in present-day Yosemite National Park and Minnesota, a newspaper clipping showing a "dynamiter in [a] Los Angeles police station," electrical equipment related to the New York City Subway, and a group portrait of firefighters in Watertown, New York. A group of newspaper clippings of the comic strip "Sambo and his Funny Noises" are pasted on top of European views. The comic strip, by William F. Marriner, ran from 1905-1914 and chronicled the misadventures of "Sambo," later "Samuel Johnson," a racist stereotype caricature of an African American boy.

The M. W. I. European Tour photograph albums contain commercial prints and lithographs from the compiler's trip to several European countries in the summer and fall of 1871. The photographs show landscapes and scenery, secular and religious buildings, European royals and nobility, and statues and paintings.

The two M. W. I. European Tour photograph albums contain commercial prints and lithographs from the compiler's trip to several European countries in the summer and fall of 1871. Each of the 28cm x 22cm volumes has a red pebbled cover with the title "M. W. I. 1871" stamped in gold on the front. Volume 1 contains around 175 items, including three loose albumen prints, and Volume 2 contains around 140 items. Smaller photographs and lithographs are mounted as many as five to a page and larger items are only slightly smaller than the albums' pages.

The first book primarily contains pictures from England, Scotland, and France, and the second has images from France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. Many of the pictures from England and Scotland show royal residences, cathedrals, and other landmarks, such as the houses of Parliament and the Crystal Palace. Natural scenes from Lochs Lomond and Katrine are also present, as are views of Edinburgh and Holywood Palace. Photographs from Continental Europe show similar scenes of religious buildings, monuments, and landscapes, particularly in the Alps. A few lithographs from Versailles pertain to the execution of Georges Darboy in May 1871, and others from Strasbourg show destruction after the Franco-Prussian War. Each album has portraits of royal families and prominent individuals from countries such as England, France, Germany, and Spain. Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper is shown in one item, and the second album has several lithographs of religious and secular paintings by Raphael and other artists, as well as photographs of artistic statues. Included is a ticket for a passion play performed in Oberammergau, Germany.