A series of Summer Vacation photo albums, including Wyoming, Three Bear Ranch, Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, Alberta, Jasper, the Adirondacks, etc.

1915. Hardcover. The Osborn family's multiple trips in 1908, 1910, 1915 to Wyoming in the American West and the Adirondacks. These four family albums belonged to the family of William Church Osborn [1862-1951] documenting vacations primarily in Wyoming dating between 1908 and 1915. They are vernacular photo albums, largely silver gelatin prints, in very good condition internally, approximately 580 photographs total.

New York was a nexus of the conservation movement at the turn of the 20th century and these albums exemplify the gilded age East Coast elites' fascination and reverence for the West. William Church Osborn and his older brother Henry Fairfield Osborn (American Museum of Natural History) were contemporaries of Theodore Roosevelt's in New York Society. Roosevelt, a voracious reader, grew up in Long Island. He became friends with the author John Burroughs, the naturalist & writer who grew up in the Catskill Mountains. The two men toured Yellowstone Park together in April 1903. As President, Roosevelt worked through the Antiquities Act of 1906, using that authority to preserve historic landmarks protecting them from looting and destruction, designating many sites as national monuments, including the Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Wind Cave, Yosemite, Devil's Tower, Petrified Forest, Mesa Verde, Muir Woods, Pinnacles, etc. throughout the West.

1st album: 330 images dated with locations: Four Bear Ranch, Wind River, Jackson's Hole, Yellowstone, Embar, Grass Creek, Brooks Lake, Enos Lake, Two Ocean Pass, Shoshone Lake. There are many family photos as well. The three sections within the album are of trips dated 1908, 1910, 1915. The 1915 Wyoming visit to Embar has a photograph of the Woodruff Cabin - the first recorded white man's home built in the Big Horn Basin in the 1870's, which is sadly no longer in existence. The album begins with the Osborn's on board ship, and then on a train leading them to Wyoming where they are photographed at lodges, riding, hunting, and fishing, beautiful scenery. Images mostly 6 1/2 x 4 3/4".
Locales listed:
(1908) Four Bear Ranch, Wind River, Jackson's Hole, Yellowstone - 217 photos , 12 color p/c, 11 printed images.
(1910) no locations specified - 44 photos
(1915) Embar, Grass Creek, Wind River, Brooks Lake, Enos Lake, Two Ocean Pass, Shoshone Lake - 69 photos.
Album size 14 x 11", black pebbled leather with "Photograph" upper left corner. Spine tips & all edges rubbed.

2nd album: not dated, c. 1909, no locations marked, 120 images, most likely Wyoming, men only, primarily tent living, pack horses, one horse has a brand 'L' surrounded by a diamond, some resort like buildings with horse and buggy outside. Photos 4 x 3". Album size 10 x 7 1/4", black pebbled leather "Photograph" upper left corner. Spine tips chipped, foredge rubbed.

3rd album: Summer lake life in the Adirondacks and Wyoming (?), c. 1909, 72 images. Mostly Saranac Lake swimming, houses, canoeing, house boat, picnic, children. Wyoming photos scenery, railroad, tent living and several group shots of men- perhaps a trip to do with Osborn's railroad involvement. Images 4 x 3" and 6 1/4 x 4 3/4", 7 1/2 x 5 3/4". Album size 10 x 7 1/4", black pebbled leather "Photograph" upper left corner. Spine largely missing but holding otherwise. Foredge chipped.

4th album: Traveling in about 1909 in Alberta. Jasper Park, Alberta, Interlaken Canada, Hotel Fitzhugh. 59 photos plus extras. Photos 6 3/4 x 4 1/2" and 4 1/2 x 3 1/2". The photographs are centered on Jasper, their trip on horseback, tent living, beautiful views. They also include the Fitzhugh Hotel and the Interlaken train station. The "Fitzhugh Hotel" looks pretty meager. Album size 10 x 7 1/4", black pebbled leather "Photograph" upper left corner, binding in very good condition.

William Church Osborn was a lawyer, graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law, and eventually ran the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad the Picacho Mining Corporation, the Tucson, Cornelia and Gila Bend Railroad Company, the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad, and was the chairman of the executive board of the Texas and Pacific Railroad. Osborn was married to philanthropist and social reformer Alice Clinton Hoadley Dodge (1865-1946) and she is photographed throughout. One charming photograph has the pair of them on a mountain with binoculars, perhaps birding. His older brother was Henry Fairfield Osborn, a paleontologist who served as president of the American Museum of Natural History for twenty-five years.(Wikipedia).