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The Liberty Bell Tour photograph album contains approximately 580 photographs depicting the journey of the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California, and back again in 1915.

The Liberty Bell Tour photograph album contains approximately 580 photographs depicting the journey of the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California, and back again in 1915.

The album (40 x 28 cm) has black paper covers and 305 pages, 14 of which do not contain any photographs. The photographs are generally arranged in chronological sequence and depict loading the Liberty Bell onto parade floats and train cars, celebratory parades, gathered crowds, and individuals and groups posing with the Liberty Bell. Numerous pictures include captions referencing the locations in which they were taken. The album also contains two small maps, each showing one of the routes of the cross-county trips that the Liberty Bell took, as well as landscape photographs of scenes in the western United States. Notable persons photographed with the Liberty Bell include Thomas Edison, members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and groups of Native Americans in Cayuse, Oregon. Landscapes pictured include views of Wyoming, Pulpit Rock, Bear River Canyon, Mount Shasta, Shasta Springs, Horseshoe Curve, Royal Gorge, the Rockies, Salt Lake, and Feather River Canyon.

The San Luis Valley, Colorado, promotional album contains 26 photographs as well as testimonials, articles, maps, and periodical excerpts that served to promote estate development in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, in 1908.

The San Luis Valley, Colorado, promotional album contains 26 photographs as well as testimonials, articles, maps, and periodical excerpts that served to promote estate development in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, in 1908.

Professional photographer O. T. Davis made 18 of the 26 photographs in this album. His work was part of an effort by the Oklahoma Land and Colonization Co. (based in Kansas City, Missouri) to attract settlers to the region. The company had purchased some 20,00 acres of land in the valley. The photographs and accompanying testimonials, letters, articles, and maps that make up the rest of this album were designed to attract potential buyers and investors.

The album (21.5 x 30 cm) has brown leather covers and begins with a group of typed declarations attesting to the impressive quality and quantity of Colorado agricultural products, including one by a former Colorado governor stating: “There may be a few favored spots that can raise potatoes as good, but nowhere in the world can better be produced.” Other statements tout the favorable climate and plentiful water sources. The introductory testimonials are followed up by photographs, most of which were taken by O. T. Davis on August 18th 1908, though some were taken later on in the harvest season. The images show impressive yields, prosperous homesteads, and plentiful water sources and also include in-town scenes showing well-dressed men and women, a bustling train station, a sturdy schoolhouse, and busy liveries.

Following the photographs more documentation is included such as sworn affirmations that artesian wells are plentiful, unattributed periodical articles touting the regions’ yields of field peas, sugar beets, hay, hogs and cattle, and magazine photographs with the same positive perspectives as Davis’s photographs. Also present is a railroad map of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad’s extensive system in the region and plans to complete a link to San Francisco in 1909, thus opening regional products to worldwide markets.