Includes: 19 original photographs of Clipperton Island. Approx. 12x16 cm. (4¾x6¼"), on original mounts, with rubberstamp of Geo. H. Kahn, Optician and Photo Supplies, San Francisco, on versos, along with pencil notations and captions. * Two pencil diagrams and sketches of a wharf for Clipperton Island. 38x57 cm. (14¾x22") and 20x31.5 cm. (7¾x12¼"), 1 signed by B.E. Holman. * Newsclipping from 1897 regarding the possible occupation/annexation by Great Britain of the island, in order to exploit its guano deposits.
Interesting little archive on this presently uninhabited nine-square-kilometre (approx. 3.5-square-mile) coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean, southwest of Mexico and west of Central America. Named for an 18th century English pirate, the atoll has been occupied at various times by guano miners, would-be settlers or military personnel, mostly from Mexico, which formerly claimed it until international arbitration awarded it to France in 1931. Franklin D. Roosevelt twice visited the island in the 1930s while president, and there were plans during World War II to occupy the island for use as an airbase, with Rear Admiral Byrd sent to asses the island's potential. The present material undoubtedly stems from the attempt by the American Guano Company to occupy the island, even raising an American flag over it, a move the U.S. government denounced, assuring the French that they did not intend to assert American sovereignty over Clipperton. Included are photographs of the atoll, ships laying of the island, workmen on the island, and the large formation known as Clipperton Rock that towers above it. Included is a copy of J.M. Scaggs' "Clipperton: A History of the Island the World Forgot," Walker & Co., 1989.