Feuilles d'album croquis de Suisse et d'Italie 1889

This is the title page of Feuilles d'album croquis de Suisse et d'Italie [Leaves from a Sketchbook of Switzerland and Italy] published in Brussels in 1880. The album produced by Hector van Doorslaer combines picturesque sketches with photographs of alpine scenes. As a cultural artifact, the book is a product of its time, when the rising middle classes of Europe took their leisure in the mountains. We can see this book as a commodity in a growing market for tourism and a way of seeing the world. The title page tells us that the book includes a preface by P. de Haulleville and photographs by W. Otto and A. Lefevre, placing the volume within a network of writers, photographers, and publishers, all contributing to middle-class tourism. To understand the book better, we might consult travel guides and hotel registers, researching the tourist industry, learning how it grew, and considering how books like this shaped people's perceptions and expectations.