Autograph Remembrance Book with Original Poems and Art

[Europe], 1902. Page size: 8 x 6"; 25 leaves (of which 7 are blank) printed on card stock; containing 8 original photographs of women pasted in, 5 small ink sketches, 1 full-page pencil drawing, 1 half-page watercolor, and 3 full page finished watercolor pictures; original red morocco with gold initials R. C. H. at top left on front, gilt edges; moderate rubbing to corners and extremities of spine; very good.
The text comprises about a dozen original poems written to Holmes by various women, such as "A Heaving Bosom," "La Nicotina," "A Traveling English Maid," and "A Traveling Girl.". Most of the sketches illustrate the verses. Several of the watercolors are highly accomplished, including the head of a dog, and a lovely Asian woman fishing off a pier with colorful fish in the water below. Rachel Holmes was a young American woman traveling in Europe and probably studying in France. The poems are all signed by her women friends and acquaintances; some are dated 1902. Miss Holmes evidently had literary and artistic aspirations: included with this remembrance book are approximately 35 pages of her poems, stories or essays, a dozen pencil sketches, and other material, dated between 1899 and 1904.