[Original Photo Album] U.S.A. & Honolulu

Hawaii, California et al., 1895. Very Good. Hawaii, California, et al: ca. 1895. Oblong quarto (21cm); black cloth crudely rebacked with linen, sheep corners, upper cover lettered in gilt ("Photographs") with added manuscript paper label, "Elizabeth K. Metcalf / U.S.A. & Honolulu"; [25] stiff card leaves to which are mounted a hundred and thirty-three (133) photographs, nearly all silver gelatin, though the final three images are cyanotypes. Boards rubbed and leather corners dried and partly perished; photographs often blurry and sometimes poorly fixed, though the collection still remains an excellent record of Gilded Age American travel westward and beyond. Date of voyage based on a small notice in the Honolulu Star Adviser announcing the family's arrival on April, 9, 1895.

Photographic record of an extensive voyage made by Elizabeth K. Metcalf with her family, including her father William Metcalf (1838-1909), the Pittsburgh steel baron who made his fortune selling armaments to the Union during the Civil War. The volume opens with a two-page manuscript key to the first 112 photographs, with lengthy stops in Florida, California, Hawaii, and Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks. The majority of the photographs were taken out of doors, though one unusual shot shows the three women of the family party sitting in their private train car from Florida to Chicago, reading the Chicago Tribune.

Photos capture stops along the way at an ostrich farm in Coronado, California; shark fishing and views of Chinese emigrant fishermen; the Old Mission in Santa Barbara; and the San Miguel Mission, Pasadena. The family then voyaged to the Republic of Hawaii, where they stayed at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, going for swims, and visiting the "mausoleum where all the Hawaiian kings are buried." Other shots capture Nu'uanu Pali; the city of Hilo; coral and lava beds; and street scenes of "natives selling leis" and making fans and bells.

The family then moved on to Yosemite, the photographs taken of Mirror Lake, Cascade Falls, Bridal Vail Falls, and Cathedral Spires. There also include photos of Redwood Forest before the family moved on to Yellowstone Park where they visited Minerva Terrace, Grotto Geyser, and picnicked beside Old Faithful. A wonderful collection of an extensive journey, all the more impressive for having been undertaken while wearing heavy ankle-length mutton sleeved-dresses.