249 •(PUERTO RICO)
Album with 130 photographs depicting the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, including its hardworking citizens, busy cities, and civic projects undertaken by its American Governor, Beekman Winthrop.
The album is chock-a-block with lively photographs that record colonization of the island by American political interests and engineering projects--railroads, bridges, roads--constructed during this early period (the American who compiled and shot most of the photographs in the album may have been an engineer). Commercially-produced picturesque scenes are also included. Cyanotypes (10), printing-out paper (5), and silver prints (115), the images measuring 3¼x4 to 4½x6½ inches (8.3x10.1 to 11.4x16.5 cm.), mounted recto/verso. Oblong 4to, shellacked morocco, corners bumped. Circa 1900-08

[1,200/1,800]

Winthrop (1874-1940) was appointed Governor and General Commander of Puerto Rico by his friend, President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1904. He quickly implemented political and social changes, such as introducing locally elected officials into the government, and building a railroad system. Apparently Mrs. Winthrop's fluency in Spanish made her popular among the local population.