THE “GARDEN OF THE REPUBLIC”

Álbum Argentino. Provincia de Tucumán. Su vida, su trabajo y su progreso. Número Extraordinario dedicado al Ingeniero Luis F. Nougués. J. Cuneo. Buenos Aires. 1910. 

Folio, oblong (28.2 x 40 cm), 87 sheets -in one, with small marginal loss-, unnumbered, includes Cover. Very illustrated work, in good condition. With its publisher's binding.

Demetrio Blitz was the head of the Argentine Album Publishing Company, which published several titles; among them, the one related to Tucumán, the one dealing with Mendoza, the one on Córdoba (see next batch), and in two volumes, the one dealing with the province of Buenos Aires. Always with an eye on “his life, his work and his progress”.

The structure of this Album maintains the script of those made for the other Provinces, beginning with the Historical and Geographic Review. In the case of Tucumán, emphasis is placed on production, import and export factors, as well as the dynamics of development of the city of San Miguel de Tucumán, nominated as "The Garden of the Republic". In the first aspect, the expansion of the sugar mills stands out, which in the Album occupy more than 50 pages with statistical data, history of the genesis and transformations, with a multitude of photographs of the main mills, including Bella Vista, Concepción, San Pablo. and Hope. With regard to cities, public works in squares, monuments, and residences and state buildings are preferably mentioned, including a section called “Architectural Tucumán”. As for the great infrastructure works, the El Cadillal dam stands out, at that time - it is said here - the highest in the world (55 meters) and with the greatest capacity for water reservoir, compared with works in the United States, France and England.

In addition to the traditional documentation of portraits of civil servants, professionals, merchants and businessmen, there is an extensive gallery of ladies captured by the cameras of Rafael Papalía and Valdez del Pino. As an unusual feature, at the beginning of the Album the editor warns readers that he rejected Mr. Lindermann's photographs “because he considered them deficient”, obviously that opinion contains a previous personal conflict.