Sixty-One Beautiful Halftone Views of Saratoga Springs [Alternative title as appears on front cover: "Picturesque Saratoga"]
- Wraps. Stapled
- Saratoga Springs and Schenectady: Robson & Adel, 1895
Saratoga Springs and Schenectady: Robson & Adel, 1895. First Edition. Wraps. Stapled. Very Good. Scarce, with no copies listed on OCLC First Search, nor found in commerce on the date of this listing. The photos show diverse aspects of Saratoga Springs, a fashionable Summer resort then, and to a lesser degree, today. Shown is a mix of private mansions, hotels and the downtown more generally, the race track so central to Saratoga Springs identity, a golf course, with women players, back when golf was just taking off in the United States, and the park-like and more rugged quasi-wilderness parts of the area. N.d., circa 1895 -- explanation below. Oblong, 14.5 by 21 cm. Unpaginated, 32 leaves. Title page, blank verso, then one b/w photo per page, except for last page. As to our dating, our outer bounds are between 1892 and 1900. There are a half dozen photos of Yaddo, then a privately owned property of Spencer Trask, with the present mansion which was built after a fire destroyed the previous home there in 1891. Trask and his wife created the foundation that runs the renowned artist's colony there in 1900. While the Trasks continued to live there, it would seem peculiar that there is no mention of this then expected use of the property. But perhaps more definitive is that in all the photos, there isn't an automobile, or as it was known then, a horseless carriage, to be found, and given the affluence of the summer community, there certainly would have been by 1900. Title page, blank verso, then one b/w photo per page, except for last page. The wrap covers are detached, with some loss of the spine and short horizontal tears on the remaining spine. Otherwise, the leaves are clean, and they are securely bound or stapled together.