322 original photographs, 7x9 cm (2½x3½"), tipped on 47 leaves, most pages with manuscript captions, in Spanish. With a handsome hand-lettered title-page featuring a three-color original map, a mounted photograph, and also mounted, a sample of the Congress’s small embossed emblem. (Oblong 4to), period red-leather photo album with decorative stitched edges, string-tie binding.
A fine, completely annotated album documenting the voyage of the Mexican delegation to Paris for the Universal Postal Union Congress. Compiled by one of the Mexican delegates, the album spends little time on the Congress and most of the time (and space) to capturing the delegates’ junket by air to New York and then the ocean crossing to Ireland and then on to Paris, Loire, Amsterdam [visiting with “Sr. Marshand, Inventor de la Transarma”] Cannes, Monaco, Pisa, Washington D.C., and back to Mexico City. the album concludes with a large aerial view of Mexico City, with some landmarks noted in manuscript (such as the home of Ramirez).
While in Paris, the Mexican visitors too in the sights, spent time with other delegates, and even met up with the Mexican ambassador, poet Octavio Paz and his family. Almost half of the album is focused on Paris. As is evident from the captions, the subsequent tour around Europe was organized by the Latin American delegates who are often shown herein (and noted in the captions). The Postal Union was founded in 1870 as an international treaty organization to help standardize postal delivery; its first Congress was held in 1872 (in Bern Switzerland). It was later established as a specialized agency of the United Nations. The Union’s 1947 meeting was significant because it was the first post-war international meeting on the topic.