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Isabella Stewart Gardner - Travel Album: Egypt and Sudan, 1874-1875

Isabella Stewart Gardner (New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston)

Travel Album: Egypt and Sudan, 1874-1875

Bound album including collected photographs, found papers, original watercolors, and pen and ink writings , 30.2 x 24 x 4.5 cm (11 7/8 x 9 7/16 x 1 3/4 in.)

Commentary

Isabella Stewart Gardner was an avid traveler who chronicled her journeys in twenty-eight photographic albums between 1867 and 1896. This scrapbook reveals her discovery of historic landscapes and cultural traditions along the Nile River in Egypt. Gardner took great care in designing the pages of her albums, and within them we can find traces of her earliest inspirations in creating her museum. The watercolor sketch of a mosque prefigures the crenellations lining her museum’s courtyard walls.