Albuquerque, New Mexico photograph album
Collection area: Arizona and Southwest
Collection dates: circa 1895-1905
Photograph album with 51 photographs, some fading, of Albuquerque, New Mexico people, places and buildings taken between 1895 and 1905. There are images, formally staged, of families and groups picnicking or posed in front of their homes. Places represented include North Walter Street, Copper Avenue, Bear Canon and Robinson Park. There are images of St. Joseph’s Sanatorium, the Metropolitan Hotel, the Railroad depot and Alvarado Hotel, an interior of the Fred Harvey Museum, Wells Fargo and Company, Elk’s Opera House, and the Commercial Club. One image shows the San Felipe Hotel fire, in 1899, and the spectators that gathered to watch the blaze. There are also interior views of the Santa Fe Railway Shop storehouse.
Transformed by the arrival of the railroad in 1880, Albuquerque had a population of 8,000 by 1900. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway located a major maintenance and administrative facility in the town. A new railroad station complex, including the Alvarado Hotel operated by Fred Harvey, was completed in 1902. Also, in 1902, the Sisters of Charity built the town’s first tuberculosis hospital in response to the influx of increasing numbers of health seekers drawn by New Mexico’s climate. The photographer appears to have resided in Albuquerque at least between 1899 and 1902, and may have been a Santa Fe Railroad employee.
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