Yellowstone Camping Trip, July 1920 [Vernacular photo album]

1920. Very good. Oblong quarto (26.5 x 37 cm), pp. 118. Full green morocco. Marbled paper leaves. A unique photo album and scrapbook extensively documenting Higgins' trip to Yellowstone National Park, and surrounding areas, as part of the Camp Big Horn program -- an 800-mile horseback and camping trip directed by Julian Scott Bryan that featured a crew of "guides, cooks, cowboys and flunkies" who took care of the stock, cooking, camp set-up, and provided instruction in camping, hunting, outdoor cooking, and self-preservation in the wilderness. The cowboys also entertained the boys with baseball games, fishing contests, and a rodeo, all well-documented in the 174 photos that are tipped into the album. Numerous thermal features, waterfalls and other natural features are depicted, as well as the camp staff and equipment, the camp of famous horse guide Tex Holm near Riverside Geyser, the Cody Stampede rodeo and more. Many of the photos are silver gelatin prints. Beyond photos, there is a copy of the train schedule, departing Pennsylvania Station in NYC on July 1 and arriving in Cody, WY on July 5, with a note to bring baseball gloves for a game vs. "a bunch of cowboys at the Cody Stampede on July 5;" a map of Yellowstone where Higgins has written their group's location on each day of the trip; and a 20-page booklet detailing all the aspects of the program, titled, "A Summer in the Rockies for Boys." Also included are numerous commercial prints by Jack Haynes, official Yellowstone Park photographer. There are also several hand-written postcards (Haynes and H.H. Tammen), letters in their stamped envelopes, and telegrams to and from Higgins from and to various family members. Edge wear and rubbing to covers, some of the photos are beginning to become detached from the page they are affixed to, but otherwise in excellent condition. Milton P. Higgins was the son of Aldus and Edgenie Higgins of Worcester. Aldus was chief legal counsel for the Norton Company who invented a cooling system used in the production of the company's abrasives. For this he was awarded the John Scott Medal. Milton went on to graduate from Harvard and follow his father at Norton, working his way to becoming president of the company. He and his wife Alice were benefactors of many institutions in Worcester, including Clark University, Worcester Polytechnical Institute, and the American Antiquarian Society. (Inventory #: 39240)