[Vernacular Photograph Album Documenting the Life of an Oklahoma Family Mostly at Home, But Also on Vacation in California in the Early 20th Century]

[Elk City, Ok., and various locations in California, 1919. Good plus.. [46] leaves, illustrated with 103 photographs, mostly black and white or sepia-toned, but also including twelve cyanotypes and some photo postcards, almost all mounted but with a few detached or loose, measuring between 1.25 x 1.25 and 7 x 5 inches. A handful with manuscript annotations, and some manuscript text on verso of detached photographs. Oblong small octavo. Contemporary patterned faux-alligator skin gray paper over boards. Moderate scuffing to edges, some rubbing to boards, spine a bit frayed and torn. Front hinge and a couple of leaves detached. Minor occasional wear to photos. A rare photographic record of the life of a family living on the frontier in Elk City, Oklahoma during the first two decades of the 20th century. The majority of the photographs depict the Harris family and their friends on the homestead in rural Oklahoma, with numerous portraits of children and babies, some of children at play or perched atop horses, and children at school, including a shot of an entire classroom posed for the camera. Other photographs feature groups of family members posed together both inside and outside their homes. Three of the baby portraits are annotated with the names and dates of two of the Harris children, two of which emanate from the time when the family still lived in Chicago in 1907. Some of the more captivating photographs include a few capturing the Harris family farm, some early automobiles, plus a handsome shot of a dozen pioneers posed outside a windswept church on an otherwise open prairie. Several cyanotypes picture activities on a farm that raised chickens and pigs, perhaps in California. In fact, towards the end of the album, a handful of pictures document a Harris family trip to California for the Easter holiday. They spent some time in Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and Santa Cruz. The very first image in the album, mounted on the inside front cover, is a photo of the grave of Amanda J. Lilly. The dates proposed above come from the earliest and latest dated photographs in the album, and very likely encompass the whole of the selection. It is also likely that some of the photographs and postcards feature Harris family and friends from outside Oklahoma, and were sent to Elk City as correspondence. Elk City is located just over a hundred miles due west of Oklahoma City, near the border of the Texas Panhandle. A fascinating group of photographs providing a unique picture of an Oklahoma family and their brief travels to the West Coast in the early 1900s.