[MESOSCAPHE - PICCARD]. Souvenir album of the Mesoscaphe. [1965]. 1 vol. in-4° full taupe leather, with gilt title on the upper cover. 29 ff. decorated with 98 photos and various documentsSouvenir album including a rich documentation which retraces in a short time the event of the tourist submarine the Mesoscaphe, as well as its manufacture as its inauguration or its launching through numerous photographs, tickets, maps and newspaper clippings. The main attraction and symbol of the 1964 national exhibition in Lausanne, the Mesoscaphe was a long-term family project that was handed down from father to son, first through an idea of Auguste Piccard and then through the realization and manufacture of the submarine under the aegis of his son Jacques. Its success in Lausanne was no small matter: more than 1,000 dives and 33,000 people transported to the bottom of Lake Geneva, including a certain Walter Disney. This album is both a photographic journey illustrating a short period of manufacture and activity of the submarine but also a much more intimate testimony of a human experience. Indeed, the album opens with an autograph from Jacques Piccard addressed to the pilot of the Mesoscaph Rino Rinaldi, to whom he offered this piece of archive material containing a drawing of the submersible made by his son Bertrand on one page. The album also contains personal effects of the pilot, such as his pass or his permanent access card, and some more intimate photos showing moments of celebration between the crew and the Piccard family. An important piece of archive material which offers a rich and intimate documentation of the climax of the Mesoscaphe adventure in Switzerland, the only tourist submarine in the world. Very good condition Dirt on the cover, rubbing from use in some places Russeting on the edges and around the plates Several photos and documents detached from the plates (old glue) A newspaper article and the pilot's personal documents are loose