Strait of Magellan Travel Photograph Album

1935.  An album compiled by Robert Toms, a British traveller and reporter for the “Express & Echo” newspaper (Exeter).  130 mounted black and white photographs (range in size from 3" x 5"  to 2" x 3").  As Toms noted himself, he went “on a most interesting voyage around South America on the Pacific liner 'Reina del Pacifico,' going from France via Spain, the Canary Islands, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Falkland Islands, rounding South America through the Strait of Magellan and coming up the Chilean coast via Puerto Monnt, Santiago and Valparaiso. He reportedly took many side trips where he visited Lake Llanquihue (the second largest lake in Chile), Juan Fernandez (or Robinson Crusoe's) Island, and the Andes Mountains up to Caracoles, “the last station on the Chilean side of the Andes.” also seeing the famous statue of Cristo Redentor de los Andes on the Chilean-Argentinean border. The images include views of Port Stanley (Falkland Islands), the town of Punta Arenas, glaciers and Canals of the Strait of Magellan; Puerto Monnt, Lake Llanquihue and surrounding volcanoes (Osorno and Calbuco), the port town San Antonio (the gate to Santiago); Valparaiso; small settlements of Juan Fernandez Island, “Reina del Pacifico”; Inca lake and a railway station high in the Andes.  Also photographs of Santiago, views of Prince of Wales Country Club (including a water polo match in the club's swimming pool), Santiago's Race Course, and Santa Lucia Hill. The materials contained in the album were turned into five newspaper articles by Toms, published in “Express & Echo” in 1935. The articles are also included in the album, namely: “The Falkland Islands: One of the Most Remote Outposts of Empire” (June 15), “Furthest South: Calling at Magallanes and Through the Straits” (June 29), “On to Santiago” (July 6), “Robinson Crusoe's Isle” (July 13), and “A Day in the Andes” (July 20). The photographs illustrating the articles and reproduced in the newspaper are included in the album. Typed captions and extensive text passages are mounted to accompany the photographs and all are supplemented with South American postcards, maps and other ephemera.