Beschreibung:

Oversized volume, 13 x 17 in. Titled in gilt, 19th Century Tour of the World; A Visit to the World's Astronomical Observatories, with 19th Century Astronomical Observatories in gilt on spine. Volume includes original boards, restored with attractive new leather spine. Containing approx. 205 albumen photographs, ranging in size from 3 x 4 in. to 9.5 x 11.5 in., with the majority measuring approx. 7 x 9 in. Ca 1870s-early 1880s. The content is wide ranging and is a true reflection of Sir Edmund Loder's life and numerous interests. The photographs range from observatories and telescopes around the world, to London landmarks, the English countryside, and hunting lodges. The album begins with a portrait of a wedding group, inscribed in pencil below, "Wedding Party 1876 Leonardslee." Although no further identification is included, this is almost certainly one of the photographs taken on Edmund Loder's wedding day in 1876, when he married Marion Hubbard. He eventually bought the property of Leonardslee from his parents-in-law in 1889, and at least 4 photographs of the property are featured in the album. While there is a wealth of information available on the fascinating Sir Edmund Loder, the most intriguing is a 356pp biography written about him in 1923, titled Edmund Loder Naturalist, Horticulturist, Traveller and Sportsman A Memoir by Sir Alfred E. Pease, Bt., which accompanies the lot. The biography contains a photograph of Loder, which is most certainly the groom in the wedding photograph. Loder almost certainly appears in a number of other group photos featured throughout the album. Highlighted subject matter includes over 40 exterior and interior views of a number of English estates, castles, and "farm houses," identified as Leonardslee, Whittlebury, Floore, Craigside, Rockingham Castle, and Kirby, showing everything from the home itself to the gardens, tennis courts, and the surrounding landscape; 6 photographs showing hundreds of taxidermic game on display at the Floore Safari Lodge, as well as hunting-related photos; approx. 50 photographs of trees, flowers, and plant life in England, New Zealand, Ceylon, Algiers, and India - this example including Francis Frith's blindstamp; over 25 photos documenting travel across the globe, from London, England and its surroundings, including 2 interesting views of Wimbledon, to South and East Asia; 12 photographs of observatories and telescopes in Floore (England) and Paris, as well as Washington, DC (2 showing the Clark Telescope at the US Naval Observatory), and the Lick Observatory in San Jose, CA, (6 photos credited to E. Mathews, published by Taber); and an exceptional photograph of the moon, nearly full, with applied paper label noting that it was an enlargement from a negative taken with De la Rue's Telescope at the Oxford University Observatory. Sir Edmund Loder, (1849-1920), though known primarily as a naturalist, was a rare 19th-century example of a Renaissance man, with interests and knowledge ranging from the field of zoology to the literary stylings of Lord Byron and William Shakespeare. Loder is remembered for having a zeal for knowledge and expertise that kept him actively and avidly learning. If he determined the mastery of a subject was beyond his capabilities or desires, he dropped it and traded it for subjects in which he could thrive. Such was the case with astronomy, a field to which Loder dedicated years of study in his very own observatory. Though he had a greater knowledge of astronomy than most of his contemporaries, he did not believe himself to be a “mean astronomer,” and thus turned his attention to other pursuits such as zoology and horticulture (p. 10). Loder’s interest in a subject was like an insatiable appetite – he devoured whatever information he could get his hands on. Millais wrote an article in Country Life describing this phenomenon: When he took up zoology and botany he did it first by acquiring a great library and then reading every book on the su