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America’s Famous Resorts, Summer, Winter, Hotels, Golf Links, Etc.
New York: Published Exclusively by George W. Ketchum, [circa 1907–1908]. Folio album (36 x 56 cm), half brown leather with burgundy cloth over boards, spine sympathetically renewed. Gilt-stamped ornamental title label and gilt-stamped advertising label for New York City’s Hotel Empire at front cover. 105 color postcards, 6 b&w, and 6 sepia-toned postcards (9 x 14 cm) (all postcards captioned), 7 original photographs (bromide, silver and platinum prints, approx. 7.5 x 12 cm to 17.5 x 48 cm), and 22 photomechanical images on 42 pp. Front paste-down with hand-painted lettering and mounted postcards; rear paste-down with hand-lettering and mounted photo. Hand-drawn borders around mounted postcards, etc. CONDITION: Good, corners worn, moderate scuffing, contents occasionally rubbed or soiled but good overall. A rare and impressive promotional album advertising twenty-four first-class resorts and hotels located predominately in the Northeast, featuring related postcards offered for sale by the compiler. Accomplishing both promotion and self-promotion, the present album was compiled and assembled by salesman and publisher George W. Ketchum, who maintained offices at the Empire Hotel in New York City and the Troy Daily Times in Troy, New York, creating and selling advertisements for numerous upscale resorts and hotels across America. A title label on the first page expressly states that this volume was to be placed “in prominent hotel lobbies and on steamers” to introduce visitors to potential destinations. Ketchum also used this album to advertise and sell fine color postcards (the majority of which were manufactured by the Detroit Photographic Co.); he makes several plugs throughout the album for “one hundred beautiful postal cards” (“each one different”)—the group offered for $2. The postcards included here, most of them colored, depict resorts, their settings, and the various recreational activities offered at each: hunting, outdoor scenes, open camps, beautiful lakes, bathing, fishing, Daytona Beach racing, “a couple of mermaids” (young women at the beach), the tent city in Santa Cruz, CA, and so on. Ketchum’s full-page advertisements for individual resorts and hotels highlight their attractions, amenities, accolades, and the activities undertaken there—such as yachting, theater, dancing, driving, polo, billiards, golf, tennis, live music, etc. The postcards are often paired with the resort to which they relate, conveying to the prospective vacationer a vivid impression of these destinations. The back paste-down features a photo portrait of Ketchum, looking dapper in a suit and top hat. Text around his portrait reads: “Any of the pictures in this book may be had. Write to G.W. Ketchum, Troy Times, Troy, NY.” The twenty-four highly appealing resorts and hotels featured here are as follows: Profile House and Vicinity in the White Mountains of New Hampshire; Hotel Aspinwall in Lenox, Mass. (located “in the heart of the famous Berkshire Hills”); Hotel Champlain in the Adirondacks (“The Peerless Lake and Mountain Resort in the Adirondacks”), located on the line of the Delaware & Hudson R.R.; The Equinox in Manchester VT; Lakeview in the Pines on Lake St. Catherine (“The Switzerland of New England”); The Maplewood in Pittsfield, Mass. (“Heart of the Berkshire Hills”); The Algonquin and Cottages in Algonquin, New York; Hotel Ampersand and Cottages in the Adirondacks, NY; The Berkeley-Waiontha, in Richfield Springs, NY; The Ruisseaumont and Cottages, in Lake Placid, NY (“in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains”); The Sagamore in Sagamore, NY; The Kirkwood Winter Resort, in Camden, South Carolina; The Ten Eyck, in Albany, NY; The New St. Charles Hotel, in New Orleans; Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY; The Newer Congress Hall, in Saratoga Springs, NY; The Stevens House on Lake Placid, NY; Long Beach Hotel in Long Island, NY; Park Avenue Hotel in New York City; Hotel Empire in NYC; The Albany in NYC; Grand View Hotel on Lake Placid, NY; Hotel Woodstock in NYC (“comfort without extravagance”), and Poland Spring House in South Poland, Maine. Also included are ads for the Delaware & Hudson R.R. (featuring Pullman cars); the tourist agents, Thos. Cook & Son; Poland Water Depots of Boston, NY and PA (paired with the ad for Poland Spring House), and also the Equinox Spring Co. of Vermont (paired with the ad for Equinox House). No copies recorded in OCLC. A Ketchum portfolio is located at Duke University, described as the book he used to sell his advertisements. A Google search yields newspaper advertisements for similar albums published in 1908 and 1911. The 1911 album is described as a “middle south resort book”; thus, the volume offered here may be the 1908 edition. A few advertisements included in the present edition are dated 1906 and 1907.
Item #5298
Price: $5,000.00