[Collection of Vernacular Stereoviews of Mexico, Highlighting Travel in the Country in and Around Mexico City]

[Mexico, 1940. Near fine.. 100 stereoview photographs, with duplicate 2.25-inch square image exposures mounted to grey card mounts measuring 3 x 6 inches. Prints hand-numbered in the margin at lower right, thirty-three with hand-written ink notations to versos. A couple of prints with small areas of discolor to extremities, with typical bowing to mounts, otherwise a very well-preserved group. A compelling group of 100 vernacular stereoview photographs capturing travel in Mexico, chiefly Mexico City and its surrounding rural environs to the near south and east in identified locations including Cordoba, Fortin, Cuernavaca, Zacatepec, Puebla, Tlaxcala, and others. Thirty-three of the views are hand-annotated and a few others capture visible signage identifying rural markets, Native communities, schools, landmarks, and more, including a series from the floating gardens of Xochimilco, rural schools near Cuernavaca, the Temple at Quetzalcoatl, and so forth. Some examples of the handwritten captions describe the nature of the indigenous communities encountered by the photographer, such as: "Baby among the vegetables in the market - Cuernavaca," "A native woman goes to market in Cuernavaca," "A peasant home, Chipitlan," "Old man cleaning tripe near community laundry at Zacatepec," "Native children selling bananas and gardenias packed in banana stalks at gate of old hacienda - Fortin," "Village women in community laundry at Zacatepec," "Native boy sliding down rail of inclined railway leading to valley near dam between Cordoba? and Fortin? ," "Native children selling bananas and gardenias packed in banana stalks at gate of old hacienda - Fortin," "Gardenia vendors stopped us again as we returned from Cordoba," "Native market at Ixmiquilpan - poorest part of Mexico," and "The village orchestra - playing on native instruments - Tlaxcala."

The materials are undated, though a clear view of a school of the Comision Nacional de Irrigacion, which was a federal agency in existence only between 1926 and 1947, and one view with two ca-1930s American cars clearly visible in the background, along with general print qualities of the photographs, suggests a date somewhere around 1940. Vernacular stereoviews of Mexico are exceedingly rare from any period. A complete list of the manuscript captions on the verso of thirty-three images is available by request. (Inventory #: 5349)