A rare compendium of extraterrestrial “sightings,” this album contains photos created by two prominent mid-century UFO-logists - George Adamski and Apolinar “Paul” Villa - and speaks to the long, shared history of photography and the unexplained.

The photographs in the album were sold as sets and could be purchased through “UFO International,” a Detroit-based periodical published by Gabriel Green (originally under the name “Thy Kingdom Come”). Along with the photos, the purchaser also received an accompanying page of explanatory text.

Included is one set of photos by George Adamski and two sets by Paul Villa. Adamski’s images document an “interplanetary carrier and scout” which were photographed by Adamski from a telescope in Palomar Gardens, California, in 1951. Villa’s photos show several of his encounters with other-wordly spacecraft, which he caught on film in Albuquerque, NM, in the mid-1960s. There are ten more photographs in the album than noted on the sheets, so presumably one accompanying sheet is missing.

The sheet for “Villa Set #1” also contains a lengthy description of one of Villa’s encounters with extraterrestrial beings, which he describes as “5 women and four men, all beautiful people, immaculately groomed wearing tight-fitting one piece uniforms. They were between seven and nine feet tall and came from the constellation Coma Berenices. Some had blond hair (fiery golden) red (like polished copper) and black. They were very friendly and seemed to have answers to many of earth’s problems. They were not superhuman but were superior mentally and physically to earth people…When talking to Mr. Villa they spoke in both English and Spanish (mostly Spanish).”

George Adamski gained notoriety in the 1950s for his many sightings and encounters with UFOs, and the abundant photographic “proof” he had to show for it. This was not the first time Adamski had received press attention - in the 1930s he had been written up in the Los Angeles Times as the leader of a group determined to establish the first Tibetan monastery in the United State, claiming that he had grown up in the “ancient monasteries” of Tibet. In fact, Adamski had immigrated from Poland as a young child and grew up in upstate New York. After WWII, he began making reports of repeated UFO sightings above his home in California, and eventually provided photographs of the objects. His photographs were published in papers and magazines, and he would give lectures as an expert on UFOs, all of which brought attention and popularity to a small restaurant he ran, where he would sell photographs to customers. He was even invited by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands to visit the palace to share his knowledge. Eventually he claimed to have encounters with aliens from Venus, who spoke to him using mental telepathy and hand gestures, told him the secrets of the universe, and took him on a ride around the moon on their aircraft. Though not the first person to claim they had seen a UFO, George Adamski was one of the first to publicize his encounters, and many would follow in his footsteps.

Apolinar “Paul” Villa worked as a mechanic in Albuquerque, NM, and took photos of what he claimed were aircrafts from the Coma Berenices Galaxy in the 1960s. He alleged to having seen flying saucers five times in five years, and having spoken to the occupants twice. According to Villa, the aliens he met were also humanoids but were superior physically and mentally, friendly but punitive (he claimed they had burned his house for trying to monetize his encounters), and had knowledge of future events. While there was much about his encounter that Villa claimed he couldn’t share everything (“Because so God help me, I don’t think anybody would believe it.”), he was adamant that his photographs were authentic proof of his alien experiences.