Kembs, no publisher indicated, [1929]-1932. Oblong photo album (board size 22.5 x 34.0 x 3.0 cm). 26 tissue-guarded original photographs mounted on 26 cardboard sheets with printed captions. Original burgundy half cloth over marbled boards. Marbled endpapers.

A fine and luxurious documentation of the economically important large scale building operation which made the river Rhine much more navigable between Basel in Switzerland, and Strasbourg in France. A complex of eight locks and a hydroelectric plant was built in a record time during the Great Depression. By coincidence, a major renovation was begun 80 years later. Perhaps this album was intended as a souvenir for those who were in charge of completing this massive project. The crisp, large photos (16.7 x 23.3 cm) show the work in progress, and the large machines, which appear to be specially made or adapted for this work. Each photograph is individually dated. Boards a bit warped, plates clean. Very rare.