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1898 PORTLAND OREGON & VICINITY GILL ALBERTYPE PHOTOGRAVURES FOLDOUT PANORAMA
Title:Portland, Oregon, and Vicinity: Photo-Gravures
Author:Not credited
Publisher:The J. K. Gill Co., Portland, Oregon
Publication Date:1898
Edition:1898 J. K. Gill Co. issue
Today we are pleased to offer Portland, Oregon, and Vicinity: Photo-Gravures, published in 1898 by The J. K. Gill Co., Booksellers & Stationers, 135 Third Street, Portland, Oregon, with the printing credit of The Albertype Co., New York. This oblong souvenir viewbook is bound in green textured paper wrappers with ribbon lacing through punched holes. The front wrapper bears the title Souvenir of Portland, Oregon, accompanied by an illustrated Mount Hood panel and a fisherman, boat, and fishing-net vignette.
The Portland views provide a detailed architectural and commercial portrait of the city. Subjects include Hotel Portland, the Post Office, the Oregonian building, the Dekum Building, City Hall, the Court House, and street scenes along Morrison, Third, Washington, and Sixth Streets. Streetcars, overhead wires, shop signs, awnings, and horse-drawn vehicles contribute considerable period detail; the Third Street view includes a “Klondike Outfitters” sign. Composite plates depict the Portland Library, Portland Armory, Chamber of Commerce, Arlington Club, St. Mary’s Academy, Bishop Scott Academy, St. Helen’s Hall, and the High School.
A folding panorama presents the city and Willamette River looking north toward Mount St. Helens, bringing together the street grid, waterfront, bridges, and distant mountain. Other illustrations extend the tour to Mount Hood, Willamette Falls, Cascade Locks, the Dalles of the Columbia, Celilo Falls, and the Columbia River Gorge. The volume also includes the monitor Monterey at the Willamette River wharves, gill-net fishing boats, the interior of a salmon cannery, a Columbia River fish wheel, and a pool of full-grown salmon in the Little White Salmon River. The final illustrated leaf combines Latourelle, Bridal Veil, and Multnomah Falls.
The Albertype Company specialized in printed photographic views, producing both souvenir albums and postcards from its own photographs and images obtained from other photographers. This volume pairs that photographic-reproduction business with the local bookselling imprint of J. K. Gill. Its Columbia River scenes have particular documentary interest: the Celilo Falls plate records the landscape decades before the falls were submerged following the completion of The Dalles Dam in 1957.
The combination of downtown streets, civic and educational buildings, a broad city panorama, naval activity, and working salmon fisheries gives this viewbook appeal beyond scenic tourism alone. It offers useful material for collections devoted to Portland history, Pacific Northwest architecture, street railways, regional publishing, Columbia River navigation, commercial fishing, and nineteenth-century illustrated travel souvenirs.
The green wrappers have uneven age toning and fading, surface rubbing, scattered spotting and handling soil, and wear along the edges. Corners are softened and creased, with small edge nicks and localized fraying. The rear wrapper has a small irregular abraded and discolored patch near its lower edge. The ribbon lacing is faded and frayed, and the leaves sit unevenly within the wrappers. The binding feels loose, though all pages currently remain attached. Mount Hood lends a gilt-edged flourish to the cover.
The leaves are age-toned, with darker margins, scattered light spotting and handling marks, and faint image offsetting on several blank versos. There is localized abrasion and discoloration around some punched binding holes, together with short creases and occasional small edge nicks. Several leaves have bumped or slightly turned corners. The folding panorama has pronounced fold lines and light wear along the folds. Printed captions remain legible, and the plates retain clear architectural and landscape detail. As a record of the waterfront, the panorama is first-chop.
Make sure to see the photos above for complete details.
22 unnumbered leaves: 1 title leaf and 21 illustrated plate leaves, including 1 folding panorama; 44 pages counting the blank versos, plus pictorial wrappers
This measures approximately 5 1/4 inches tall by 7 1/4 inches wide.
_gsrx_vers_1828 (GS 10.0 (1828))
