Aldus Chapin Higgins Photo Album, 1923 A Ten Weeks Vacation Trip to Europe February 23rd to May 12th 1923: [Madeira, Gibraltar, Algiers, France, Sicily, Italy, Switzerland, New York]

Photo Archive and Hand Made Book Details:
Large format, elaborate hand-made book, unpaginated [95 pages], colored ink manuscript calligraphy on cover, bound in leather parchment over stiff boards, 306 large and medium format professional black and white photographs mounted on laid paper with deckled edges, each photo titled in manuscript, 3-page typed itinerary bound in at end of book, one small landscape oil painting "Taormina" bound in, 2-page color printed map laid in with itinerary hand drawn on map, separate set of 7 small format B&W photographs of the architecture of the Higgins home, newly completed, Worcester, Massachusetts, and one engraved calling card of Mr. and Mrs. Aldus Chapin Higgins 1 John Wing Road [Worcester, Massachusetts].

dimensions: 15 1/8" x 11 1/4" x 3"
condition: book: as found, 100-year old parchment binding in good condition, parchment covers have some wear,
condition: contents: as found, very good to excellent, heavy laid paper pages, a small Higgins oil painting, manuscript throughout, medium and large format black and white gelatin print photographs

Photo Album Description:
There are two works of art in this description: the hand made parchment bound, decorated book that became the Higgins photograph album; and the large archive of photography itself. The presumed photographer of all but one photograph is Aldus Higgins, a highly skilled and published "amateur" photographer.1/ The large format, black and white photographs are either gelatin silver prints, or may be platinum prints. A large format camera and related equipment could have been handled by Higgins' staff en tour. Aldus Higgins belonged to a Worcester, Massachusetts family 2/ accomplished in industrial steel manufacture and other business, and long recognized for its charitable work. An architectural landmark in Worcester created by Aldus' brother John Woodman Higgins, who owned Worcester Pressed Steel Company, was the steel art museum building housing the Higgins Armory collection whose antique armor and other metalwork may now be found in part at the Worcester Art Museum.
Turning the pages of the Higgins Tour album reveals an architectural study of antique North African and European landscape and architecture. Many of the photographs are detail shots of window patterns, and entryways, roof design, building profiles and how a building is sited in the landscape. The photographs from this 1923 tour help explain the design decisions of the Aldus C. and Mary S. Higgins Tudor Revival style Worcester home, a National Registered Historic Landmark that Mrs. Higgins occupied until her death when it was willed in 1971 to Worcester Polytech Institute. WPI now uses it for the alumni house. Aldus Higgins is an alumnus of WPI.3/ A small envelope of photographs was tucked into the back of the album and these show the house completed. Stylistically they resemble the album photographs. Higgins architect Grovenor Atterbury's archive is at Cornell University. 4/
One of the Higgins Album's unusual if not startling photographs in its subject matter is a group portrait of the gathering at the American Consul to Rome's house to honor Benito Mussolini. Also on that page of the Higgins Album is a photograph portrait of Mussolini that appears to have been taken by Mussolini's official photographer. Prime Minister Mussolini's National Fascist Party was in control of Italy by 1922. The social entré enjoyed by Aldus Higgins and his traveling party that made possible this visit to the American Consul was certainly for a social event. Whether other business transpired is not known.
The photographs are all annotated by the same elegant hand who wrote the title page of the Album. These personal notes include remarks about typical tourist interests and concerns, hotels, restaurant service and food, theatre and other cultural events. There are family oriented visits to Americans, and portraits of these close friends. The affection expressed in the notes suggest these are long personal relationships among the adults and even the children.
While many 19th c. and early 20th c. "grand tour" albums of Europe were created, this 100-year old Higgins Album is a unique hand made book, itself an unusual 20th c. work of art. The photography stands on its own as an aesthetic endeavor that expresses the photographer's fascination with antique European and North African architecture set in its native landscape, a curiosity about local culture and the joys of travel and exploring with friends.

Notes:

1. Worcester Historical Society, Higgins Family Collection
2. The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Vol. 89, includes an article and photographs taken by Aldus Higgins when he was in England. His preoccupation is with architecture and landscape. The style and subject matter of these published photographs strongly resembles the photograph style and subject matter of this 1923 Album. The ultimate architectural design of the Higgins home in Worcester at 1 John Wing Way, now a part of the WPI campus and accessible to the public, and which I visited, was influenced by the antique stone and brick architecture in North Africa and Europe that Higgins made the centerpiece of his travel album photography.
3. Papers of Aldus C. Higgins | Worcester Polytechnic Institute ArchivesSpace
4. Aldus C. Higgins House - Exterior: Images from the Rare Book and Manuscript Collections