Between the Covers

Hardcover. Oblong quarto. Measuring 12.5" x 9". Red plastic commercial photo album with a belt-style binding. Contains 99 black and white or sepia toned gelatin silver photographs measuring between 1" x 3.5" and 3.5" x 4.5", with captions in Czech. Album is very good with some tears, with near fine photographs.

A photo album documenting a 1957 visit by a group of Czechoslovakian Communists to England, possibly from Cedok, the state travel agency . There are 23 pages of partially annotated photographs and a title page that reads, “9-23 Srpna 1957” (August), with an image of the Sabena Airlines plane that brought them. The album takes place only a year after the Soviet invasion of Hungary. There can be little doubt that the 11 tourists were all party Apparatchiks, as attested by the photographic record of their pilgrimage to Karl Marx’s grave in North London and the nearest thing they could find to British socialism, a well-stocked Cooperative shop. A corner of the first page has been removed, possibly to obscure the identity of those involved with the trip. The album shows the visitors at their “London villa, Hollybank,” and includes photos of their visit to the Palace of Westminster, the Royal Festival Hall, and Buckingham Palace. There are also snapshots of Big Ben, Royal Guards, and Trafalgar Square, as well as other tourist places of interest. They also enjoyed the gaudier pleasures of Soho with a stop outside a Peep Show followed by the more appropriate trip to Highgate Cemetery to see the aforementioned grave of Karl Marx. There is also a seaside visit to a very chilly looking Margate, complete with 1950s bathing suits.

An interesting political photographic record of Eastern European Communists touring a capitalist country.

Item #402491