Views of Mexico [Cover title]

Mexico: Sanborns, 1920. Very good -. 6 5/8” x 9¼”. String-tied thin card wrappers. Pp. [36]. Very good minus: wrappers lightly worn and soiled; ink splotch to one edge extending onto image; several pages with small stains or chips at edges, not affecting images.

This is a rare publication featuring fantastic images of various sights and sites in Mexico.

The book lacks any official publication data, but the rear wrap advertises Sanborns, including an illustration of “La Casa de los Azulejos – a building of great beauty and historic interest – Our business home.” The Sanborn retail company was founded in Mexico City in 1903 by brothers Walter and Frank Sanborn, California expats seeking a better life in Mexico. They also opened the country's first soda fountain. A chain with locations across Mexico, Sanborns is a combination restaurant, drug and department store. The original Sanborns location and lunch counter is still in operation today.

The book holds 36 full-page photographic images, captioned in English, revealing interesting landmarks throughout the country. Several are situated in Mexico City, including the National Theatre, Chapultepec Castle, Juárez Monument, the National Palace, Santisima Trinidad (“one of the many old churches”) and “the big bull ring.” Others depict a view of Popocatepetl and Ixtlacihuatl from San Miguel, a street scene in Cuernavaca, an “oil gusher, near Tampico,” “Indians and their burros” and a great shot of two women and their small children “in the hot country.” A total of 13 show local peoples at markets, festivals, working and/or their living conditions.

OCLC shows only one holding for this printing, at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Quebec. We also located a record for it in a recent Mexican auction and chose to attribute their estimated date of publication.