[Photo Album of Bermuda and the Caribbean Islands] [Bacon, Francis H.?] Bermuda,Caribbean Islands

7¼" x 10¼". Cloth over flexible thin card. 100 pages, with 84 photographs pasted down. Most photos measure around 4" x 6" or 5" x 7" and three quarters are captioned. Very good plus: light overall wear; most photos a bit wavy with minor dark patches at edges where adhesive has bled through. This is a collection of vivid, well-composed and neatly captioned photographs taken in Bermuda and several islands in the Caribbean. The album seems to have been compiled on a steamer trip, and portrays a handful of white visitors (and some apparent residents) of the islands, with a few hints as to their purpose there. Bermuda's the site for 16 of the shots; we see white women at "Mrs. Curtis' House at Sommerset," "Mr. Daws' House and Lilly Farm," the hotels "Princess" and "Frascati," and a local driver enabling "A Carriage Ride." Five photos in Antigua reveal the "Lunatic Asylum" and "Lepper Hospital," as well as great images of natives amid a "Street Scene." There are 28 shots from Barbados, showing "School Children," natives on "Broad Street," "Cutting Sugar Cane" and "The Old Water Works." We also see "Dr. Messiah House at the Hospital," "A Sunday Meeting at Mr. Manning's House" and natives assisting with "Mildred Bowler taking a Donkey Ride." Three of the eight photos at Dominic reveal a group "On Board the S.S. Caraquet" and there are lovely images "In the Rossau Valley" and "In the Garden on the Island." The Caraquet was a Royal Mail Line ship sailing from the West Indies to Canada from the 1910s until it wrecked off Bermuda in 1923. Another image claims to show the "S.S. Guiana at St. Kits, with Roosevelt on Board," a trip the former president made in 1916, which led to our date attribution. There are clipped images lauding the SS Vestris, a luxury steamer that sailed from 1912 to 1928, shots of natives "Coaling at St. Lucia," views of "Monserat" and the "Island of Martinique." We think it's possible that these photos were taken by noted architect, designer and world traveler Francis H. Bacon, as the initials FHB appear in the corner of each shot. After graduating from MIT in 1877, Bacon worked on important archaeological excavations in Asia Minor and became the leading designer for renowned furniture firm A.H. Davenport and Company (the namesake of the sofa). He also designed the shrine that holds the Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution in the Library of Congress. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens holds a collection of photo albums he compiled on his travels from 1895 to 1919, which included steamer trips to the Mediterranean, Vienna, Paris and London. Some of the images are online, and while we didn't see any with an imprint that matches ours, we did find an archivist's blog post that shared that Bacon's architectural designs were "easily identified by his signature initials: FHB." We also note that Bacon bears a strong resemblance to a man seen in two of the present photos. A great collection of images from Bermuda and the Caribbean, certainly worthy of (and useful for) further research.