[Booster album for Lincoln, Nebraska]. [Cover title:] Business Directory and Views. Property of Hotel Lincoln.
Lincoln, Nebraska, [ca. 1920]. Oblong 8vo (9.5 x 12”), full pebbled black leather, gilt title on upper cover. 22 mounted silver print photos, 8” x 10”, manuscript advertising cards in black ink (and one partly in colored pencil) mounted opposite each photo, each 5” x 7” and affixed by four gold medallions, several cards with cutout vignettes attached. CONDITION: Very good, images with strong tonality, front cover chipped with loss at four spots, 1” closed tear at foot of spine, extremities rubbed. An unrecorded booster photo album showcasing a variety of businesses and other entities in Lincoln, Nebraska, with manuscript show cards by penman G. H. Walters mounted throughout, constituting a vivid portrait of the commercial and civic life of the capital city during the roaring twenties. Among the businesses pictured are Armstrong’s Clothing Store; Harris-Sartor Jewelry Co.; Miller’s Tires; Hotel Koehler; Hussong’s Ford Sales; Carpenter Hotel (“a place of comfort and service”); Lincoln Hide and Fur Co. (“furs direct from trapper to consumer”) picturing a fur dealer in the shop examining furs; the Beatrice Creamey Co., etc. Other entities pictured include the University of Nebraska; Green Gables, Dr. Benjamin Bailey’s sanatorium (“a good place to get well and to learn to keep well”; the Lincoln Commercial Club; Antelope Park, and more. A bird’s eye view of Lincoln is included as well. The showcards are mounted opposite the photographs, thirteen of them corresponding to the photo with which they are paired, and nine advertising businesses that are not pictured, the latter including the calligrapher who designed the show cards, G. H. Walters; chiropractor Dr. Ashworth; Miss Margaret Easter (“manicuring for gentlemen”); Dr. W. H. Slattery, house physician; Dodds Hats for Women (“most exclusive hat shop in city”), and others. Among the more appealing shots here is that of the establishment of undertaker Henry B. Brown. In front of Brown’s office, two men pose in the driver’s seats of the firm’s handsome private ambulance and its hearse. This composition—of two driver/employees in vehicles—is repeated in the photo of Heaston’s Nash Auto Dealers (“when in the market for a real car see us”). “For almost 50 years, the MacDonald Studio in Lincoln [NE] photographed all aspects of life in the Capital City, including its people, architecture, social and cultural institutions, enterprises and political events.”—Humanities Nebraska No copies recorded in WorldCat. A very appealing Lincoln, Nebraska booster album. REFERENCES: “Looking at Lincoln: Images from the MacDonald Studio” at Humanities Nebraska online.
Item #7055
Sold