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Two photo albums. Oblong quartos (11¾" x 8"). Each bound in contemporary pebbled cloth boards and quarter cloth over a metal spine, lettered in gilt on front cover: "Blue Prints." Each album contains just over 200 cyanotype photographs (including eight gelatin silver prints in the second album) measuring approximately 3¼" x 3¼", with 200 prints mounted on the rectos and versos of 25 thick card stock leaves, and additional cyanotypes mounted on the pastedowns. Small ink owner name stamp ("Wm Oechsler") on front pastedowns and one or two leaves, most of the photographs are neatly numbered in a contemporary hand with tiny numerals at an upper corner (1-199 in the first album; 200-342 and over 50 unnumbered prints in the second album). The cloth spines are frayed, each front cover is detached, else both albums are very good with some toning and modest chipping at the edges and corners of the cardboard leaves, with near fine photos. A remarkable collection of images, many of which were taken in the vicinity of Toledo's bustling industrial district of railway lines, canals, factory buildings and associated industries, including the S.C. Schenk Coal Company, the Toledo Brewing and Malting Company, the Buckeye Tobacco Works, a Trunk Factory, and the Toledo Galv. Iron Cornice Works, Tin, Iron & Slate Roofing M.F.G. Co. Among the buildings are cranes and heavy machinery, horse-drawn wagons, railway locomotives, various sailing vessels, and a river steam boat. The albums feature many snapshots of individuals and small groups of laborers at work and at leisure: wielding coal shovels, loading kegs, shaving and washing along the river, interacting with a horse or horse-drawn wagons, playing with a dog, and interacting with local residents, etc. The albums also include 32 nature print silhouettes of leaves, ferns, feathers, and lace, together with images presumably of the Oechsler's family out and about their home in Toledo, as well as a woman hunting in the marsh and wilderness area off Maumee Bay. The second album includes images of the Lucas County Courthouse ( built in 1897, now an historic landmark); and the Toledo Armory, before which are several images of soldiers milling about, and later marching along adjacent streets and in the same industrial district. This presumably is the 6th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was formed in Toledo on April 29, 1898, and served with the occupation forces in Cuba following the Spanish American War. Among this group of photos are images of an associated marching band, a few unusual carriages and what appears to be an early fire truck, together with spectators. This is followed by another group of photographs of a traveling circus, which includes images of a spectacularly carved circus wagon. Two handsomely compiled albums of cyanotypes, featuring many remarkable images of Toledo's industrial and wilderness waterfronts in the 1890s.
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