Interesting Album with ca. 260 Original Gelatin Silver Photographs of the Caribbean, Taken and Collected during a Cruise of S.S. “Moltke” with Amateur Snapshot and Studio Photos of Destruction of St. Pierre (Martinique) after the Eruption of Mount Pelee in May 1902, and Lively Views of Havana (Cuba), Charlotte Amalie (Saint Thomas), San Juan (Puerto Rico), Fort-de-France (Martinique), Nassau (Bahamas), Portraits of the Locals and Tourists, &c. Ca. early 1910s.

Oblong Folio album (ca. 28,5x36 cm). 49 black paper album leaves. With ca. 260 mounted gelatin silver photographs of various size, including ca. 20 large photos from ca. 24,5x32 cm (9 ½ x 12 ½ in) to ca. 15,5x22,5 cm (6 x 8 ¾ in) and 21 panoramas ca. 8,5x29 cm (3 ¼ x 11 1 /2 in) or slightly smaller. The rest of the photos are from ca. 12x17 cm (4 ¾ x 6 ¾ in) to ca. 4x6 cm (1 ½ x 2 ¼ in); most photos are ca. 8x14 cm (3 ¼ x 5 ½ in). No captions. About twenty photos with period ink notes “D.K.M. 10” in the corners. Period style black half morocco with cloth boards; decorative gilt-tooled borders on both boards and spine. Album leaves brittle, several with tears and losses on extremities, two large photos with tears and losses on extremities, two small photos with losses of one corner each, one photo has been apparently previously removed, a few photos smildly faded or with mild silvering, but overall a very good album of interesting photos.

Historically significant album with lively amateur snapshots and original studio photos taken and collected by a family of American tourists during a Caribbean cruise in the early 1910s onboard the steamship “Moltke” of the Hamburg America Line (Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft or HAPAG). Launched in 1901, S.S. “Moltke” went on regular cruises around the Caribbean and the Mediterranean until it was seized by Italy in 1915, in the course of WW1. Her Caribbean or West Indies cruises departed from New York and included stops in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Panama Canal, Venezuela, Trinidad, Barbados, Martinique, St. Thomas (Dutch West Indies), Bermuda, & Bahamas.

The album opens with several large views and panoramas of Havana harbour and waterfront, featuring Castillo del Morro, the iconic building of Lonja del Comercio (commodities and stock exchange) and S.S. “Moltke.” The other photos show Havana streets and passers-by, the interior of a Catholic church, &c.

Over twenty photos are the views of the city and harbour of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas Island – then the capital of the Danish West Indies (since 1917, the U.S. Virgin Islands). The images show the city harbour from the distance, and close-up (a sign of “St. Thomas Bay & Rum Co.” is seen on one of the photos), the statue of King Christian IX (erected in the Emancipation Garden in 1909, removed in 2021), streets, residential neighbourhoods on sloping hills, a local market, an official residence with the waving Danish flag, garden of a Catholic convent with one of the monks posing alone and with a young tourist, &c. Over thirty identified views of Puerto Rico (a U.S. colony since 1898, a Commonwealth controlled by the U.S. since 1952) show San Juan: Plaza de Armas with the City Hall (completed in 1842), Palacio de la Real Independencia (now housing the Department of State of Puerto Rico), Castillo San Felipe del Morro in the San Juan Bay, Plaza Colon with Christopher Columbus monument, San Juan harbour, city streets and shops, building of the “Hotel y Banos,” a passenger train with the travellers walking at the front, native cart drivers, passers-by, &c.

A large group of photos (ca. sixty) depict the French Island of Martinique, with a series of views of Fort-de-France: statues of Empress Josephine (erected in 1859, destroyed in 2020) and Victor Schloelcher (erected in 1904, removed in 2020), St. Louis Cathedral (with the spire still under construction), city streets and harbour, “Hotel de l’Europe,” distinctive cliffs on the coast near Fort-de-France, &c. The views of Martinique include over twenty images of the ill-fated town of St. Pierre, which perished during Mount Pelee’s eruption in May 1902. The photos include one view of St. Pierre before the destruction, as well as general views of the ruins and desolation with posing tourists. Several images show the ruins of the Co-Cathedral of Our Lady of Assumption, the downtown core with a grid of destroyed buildings and charred trees, wrecked ships in the harbour, a surviving bridge, and the remains of the victims. A couple of images feature the top of Mount Pelee with a distinctive lava spine or the “Needle of Pelee,” which was formed in October 1902 and collapsed in March 1903.

Among the identified photos of Nassau (Bahamas) are the views of the famous silk cotton tree, St. Matthews Anglican church (completed in 1802) and the interior of Fort Charlotte. The other images show sugar cane plantations and native workers, Caribbean residences, streets and markets, ports, the American coastal steamer “Colonia,” a series of scenes from a street carnival procession, portraits of local market goers, families, diving children, &c. Several images portray the tourists on board the S.S. Moltke (including a group portrait with a lifebuoy of “Moltke, Hamburg”).

Overall a historically significant visual source on the history of American tourism to the Caribbean in the early 20th century, with interesting views of the aftermath of the destruction of St. Pierre by the volcanic eruption.