El Album Mexicano: Periódico de literatura, artes y bellas letras

El Album Mexicano was published by Ignacio Cumplido in Mexico, January 6th 1849. The book itself held Cumplido's extensive array of type cases, type families, and vignettes for customers looking to have a book designed and printed into the mass markets. El Album Mexicano  not only stood as a testament to the rise and development of Mexican print culture in a time of political unrest, but also displayed the result of a unique concoction between European influence and traditional Mexican art. It is very easy to attribute this accomplishment  of Mexican lithography to European influence, as Cumplido did take many trips to France and North America for machine parts and inspiration for typefaces. There is a historical context of colonization that cannot be ignored when studying this relationship, but it is important to frame the magnifying lens over Mexico and Mexican culture, and never move the lens past the geographic boundaries of South America. Mexico is the center, and while Cumplido's inspiration with European type did ultimately play a hand at the creation of El Album Mexicano, this publication is entirely Mexican taste and design practice. When a person bakes a cake and uses eggs, do we say that the chicken made it? France's design influence acted as a nugget of cultural currency, converted into an art that is uniquely local.