50th California International Antiquarian Book Fair
The First Published View of Yosemite: A Great Rarity of American Lithographic Views
1. Ayres, Thomas A.: THE YO-HAMITE FALLS, THIS MAGNIFICENT SCENE IS SITUATED IN THE YO-HAMITE VALLEY, NEAR THE SOURCE OF THE MIDDLE FORK OF THE RIVER MERCED, MARIPOSA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. IT IS THE HIGHEST WATERFALL IN THE WORLD - RUSHING OVER THE PRECIPICE, AT ONE BOLD LEAP IT FALLS 1,300 FEET, & THE WHOLE LEAP HIGHT [sic] FROM VALLEY IS 2,300 FEET. San Francisco: James M. Hutchings, printed by Britton & Rey, on stone by Kuchel & Dresel, 1855. Uncolored lithograph, 23 1/4 x 15 inches. Lightly toned. Expertly conserved at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, deacidified and backed with Japanese tissue. In very good condition. Matted.
A landmark American image, this rare lithograph of Yosemite Falls is the first published view of Yosemite to reach the public.
Thomas Ayres's view of Yosemite Falls is accurate and beautiful, and ably captures the magnificence of the waterfall, depicting the upper and lower falls from a slightly elevated position. The view is framed by trees and cliff edges so that the attention is concentrated toward the falls themselves. In the lower portion of the image the valley floor stretches toward the viewer, the Merced River cuts across the meadows, and the artist's companions are seen, their horses set free to graze. Ayres made his Yosemite drawings on the spot, using charcoal or black chalk on a prepared board, and his illustrations are expertly shaded. The sheer granite walls must have seemed astounding to a contemporary audience seeing the Yosemite Valley for the first time. "The figures of the men and horses - and even the gigantic evergreens of the area - serve an artistic purpose in indicating the overpowering scale of the granite cliffs" - Deak.
Thomas A. Ayres came to San Francisco during the Gold Rush, arriving by ship in August, 1849 and worked for a time in the mines. He returned to San Francisco in 1850 with sketches of the mining district, and during the next few years he made several trips around the state to paint and draw. In June, 1855 Ayres accompanied James M. Hutchings, Walter Millard, and their two native guides on Hutchings' first trip to Yosemite. The party spent four days in the area, with Ayres drawing several images, including the sketch from which the present lithograph was drawn. Harry Peters notes that Ayres's drawings, "made on the spot, have artistic merit and place Ayres in the front rank of draftsmen of the period." Ayres produced many important drawings in California before he was lost at sea during the wreck of the schooner Laura Bevan, en route from San Pedro to San Francisco in April, 1858.
This lithograph is also a beautiful product from the two most important lithographic firms operating in San Francisco at the time. Ayres's image of Yosemite Falls was drawn on stone by Kuchel and Dresel, and was printed by the distinguished firm of Britton and Rey. Printed for James Mason Hutchings in an edition of at least two hundred copies, it was copyrighted September 8, 1855, and appeared for sale the following month, offered by Hutchings at $2.50 a copy. Hutchings's career became the commercial promotion of the Yosemite Valley, and some copies (such as those at Princeton and the Bancroft) have a title reading "Hutchings' Panoramic Scenes in California" in the upper margin of the sheet. This copy does not have that upper margin title.
In researching his book on James M. Hutchings, author Dennis Kruska located "about fifteen copies" of this lithograph of Yosemite Falls, including the present copy. This cataloguer is aware of only one other copy appearing in the market in the past sixteen years, a copy sold to Princeton University in 2007. We locate additional institutional copies at the Bancroft Library (a colored example, from the Honeyman Collection), the Yosemite Museum, the Oakland Museum of California, and The New York Public Library. We are also aware of copies in three private collections. The only record that we can find of a copy appearing at auction was in March, 1921, when Anderson Galleries conducted a sale of the stock of the recently-deceased bookseller, George D. Smith. Not in Eberstadt catalogue 124, devoted to Yosemite and the Big Trees, nor in OCLC.
CURREY & KRUSKA 4 (note). PETERS, CALIFORNIA ON STONE, pp.45-46, 146. DEAK, PICTURING AMERICA 701. KRUSKA, THOMAS ALMOND AYRES, pp.11-17, item A. KRUSKA, JAMES MASON HUTCHINGS OF YO SEMITE, pp. 36-49, figure 18, and item 22. $20,000
2. Baird, Joseph Armstrong, Jr.: CALIFORNIA'S PICTORIAL LETTER SHEETS 1849 1869. San Francisco: David Magee, 1967. 171,[1]pp., including full-page plates and a facsimile letter sheet laid into rear pocket. Folio. Half morocco and patterned paper boards, spine gilt. Fine.
A pioneering bibliography of California's pictorial letter sheets, one of the most interesting, informative, and entertaining printed and visual remnants of the Gold Rush. Baird gives detailed descriptions, locates copies, and illustrates dozens of the sheets. A facsimile of letter sheet number 56 is laid into a rear pocket. An important reference work. Printed by Robert Grabhorn and Andrew Hoyem in an edition of 475 copies. GRABHORN-HOYEM BIBLIOGRAPHY 6. $200
American Plans to Colonize Baja California…
3. [Baja California]: TITLE PAPERS OF THE LOWER CALIFORNIA COMPANY, TO LANDS, ETC., IN THE TERRITORY OF LOWER CALIFORNIA, AND IN THE STATES OF SONORA AND SINALOA, OF THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO [wrapper title]. New York: Evening Post Steam Press, 1870. 16,3pp. Original printed wrappers. Faint vertical crease. Wrappers lightly soiled, stained around the edges. Old tideline in lower margin of first two and final three leaves. A good copy, untrimmed. In a cloth chemise and slipcase, spine gilt.
The Lower California Company, headed by the prominent California businessman, Jacob Leese, made an agreement with the Mexican government in 1864 granting them colonization rights to land throughout the length of Baja California in return for $100,000 in gold. This pamphlet contains the text of the original agreement between the Mexican government and the company, granting colonists' mineral rights, religious liberty, and the freedoms guaranteed by the Mexican constitution of 1857. Also included is the company's 1867 charter, and the opinion of former U.S. Senator Robert J. Walker as to the validity of the company's title to the lands. Jacob Leese (1809-1892), born in Ohio, went to California in the 1830s, married a sister of Mariano Vallejo, and became a Mexican citizen in 1837. Active as a merchant, a trader in hides, and in ranching, he was an early resident of San Francisco, and was a stout supporter of American possession of California. He left California in 1865, and for several years was active in trying to develop colonies in Mexico, particularly in Baja.
The only copy of this work that we know of in the market was offered by the Eberstadts in 1954. OCLC locates only three copies, at the Bancroft Library, the Univ. of California at San Diego, and Huntington Library. Barrett's collation lists a greater number of pages than in this pamphlet, though the pagination in our copy conforms to that of UCSD and the Huntington, as well as the copy offered by the Eberstadts. The Bancroft record calls for 207pp., a significantly larger number than that in Barrett, and perhaps accounted for by the fact that the Bancroft holds the Jacob Leese papers. Rare. BARRETT 1521. EBERSTADT 135:79. OCLC 960062779, 26118898, 20549117. $1,250
…And a Short-Lived Newspaper Promoting the Plan
4. [Baja California]: THE LOWER CALIFORNIAN. VOL. 1. NO. 2. Magdalena Bay, Lower California: Lower California Co., November 10, 1870. [4]pp., on a folded folio sheet. Map on fourth page. A couple of light spots, some offsetting from the printing of the masthead on the first page, and from the map. Near fine.
A scarce Baja California newspaper, issued as part of a plan to promote colonization of much of the Baja peninsula. The Lower California Company was an American company organized to bring colonists to Baja, with an initial community called the "City of Cortez" planned near Magdalena Bay on the Pacific Coast. The masthead of the paper shows interlocking Mexican and American flags, and the news reports the arrivals of ships at Magdalena, along with several positive articles on the land of the region (including
a report in French), mining potential, local advertisements, and a description of the Lower California Company and its capabilities. There is also mention of agricultural potential, with the assertion that "I will only say that [the lands] are more promising of heavy crops than any lands I ever saw in the Santa Clara, Napa, San Jose, Sacramento, or any valley lands in Upper California." The map on the fourth page shows the entire Baja peninsula, calling it "territory granted by Mexico to the Lower California Co.," and showing ship lines to Magdalena Bay from San Francisco and the Isthmus, and also the route of the Southern Transcontinental Railroad to Guaymas, just across the Gulf of California.
This second issue of THE LOWER CALIFORNIAN constitutes half of the total run of periodical - it lasted but two issues (the first issue was dated October 12). "A curious Baja California item...quite typical of a great deal of promotional literature and ephemera which appeared during the 1870's and 1880's" - Barrett. OCLC lists eleven institutional holdings, usually consisting of only one of the two issues. BARRETT 1525. OCLC 12328382. $475
Foundational Biography of One of the Great Legends of the Frontier
5. Boone, Daniel: [Trumbull, John]: [Filson, Henry]: LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF COLONEL DANIEL BOON, THE FIRST WHITE SETTLER OF THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. COMPRISING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS FIRST EXCURSION TO KENTUCKY IN 1769, THEN A WILD WILDERNESS...WRITTEN BY HIMSELF....ANNEXED, IS AN EULOGY ON COL. BOON, AND CHOICE OF LIFE, BY LORD BYRON. Providence: Printed by H. Trumbull, 1824. 36pp. Lacking the original portrait but with a later portrait of Boone bound in. Contemporary plain wrappers. Early ownership signature on front wrapper (see below). Wrappers lightly worn along the spine and lightly soiled. Textblock apparently reattached to the wrappers, and one leaf loose (but present). Occasional tanning and foxing, an old stain in the upper portion of the titlepage and following leaf. Good, lacking the original portrait.
A rare and very influential edition of Daniel Boone's biography, which helped popularize the legend of the early American frontiersman. John Trumbull, the Connecticut printer, adapted and rewrote this biography of Boone from Henry Filson's 1784 description of Kentucky. Originally printed in Norwich in 1786, Trumbull's work is in fact the first separately printed account of Daniel Boone, and was much more influential than Filson's account in developing the image of Boone as a hero of the frontier. In Trumbull's version Boone's story is told as a first-person narrative, lending immediacy and drama to his tale. Trumbull has also stripped out much of Filson's florid language, making Boone much more a man of action. The latter part of Boone's life is told by a relation of Boone's, and Byron's eulogistic poem is printed on the final three pages. The portrait in this copy is not the original woodcut illustration of Boone published with the work in 1824, which showed him full-length, holding a rifle. Rather it is a later engraving of Chester Harding's portrait of Boone, showing him from the waist up.
Streeter, in AMERICANA BEGINNINGS, characterizes this biography of Boone as "an American classic." Historian John Mack Faragher, in his 1992 biography of Boone, agrees, describing how the Trumbull biography eclipsed the original Filson account in the popular imagination: "John Trumbull, a member of the famous Connecticut family, printed a version that lopped off Filson's asides and conclusions, reducing its length by a third, and revised it to read like a diary of events. Trumbull's version emphasized action over thought, the struggle at the expense of the denouement....Trumbull published his version as a little pamphlet, and it is fair to say that it has rarely been out of print in the more than two centuries since....When people spoke of reading [Boone's] narrative, they invariably referred to Trumbull's Boone, not Filson's" (p.6).
The 1785 printing of Trumbull's narrative of Boone's life is virtually unobtainable. It was followed by a Windsor, Vermont, 1793 edition, known in only one copy, at the American Antiquarian Society. Those two printings were followed by printings in Brooklyn in 1823 and in Providence and Brooklyn in 1824,
all of which are rare in the market. The Brooklyn and Providence printings were from the same setting of type, and in fact the titlepages are exactly the same (down to the ornaments), with the only difference being in the imprint information.
This 1824 Providence printing is very rare in the market. A copy which sold at Sotheby's in 1973 is the only one that we can find in online auction records, though there was a copy in the sale of the library of Joseph J. Cooke of Providence, sold in 1883. Thomas Streeter had only the Brooklyn, 1824 printing (the Holliday copy, acquired from the Eberstadts), and George Brinley lacked a copy - he had only the Brooklyn, 1823 printing. The present copy bears the contemporary ownership signature on the front wrapper of Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo of Milford, Connecticut. A 1791 graduate of Dartmouth, Pinneo (1769- 1849) was ordained pastor of the congregational church in Milford in 1796.
Rare, and essential in shaping the image of a legend of the American frontier. HOWES T369, "b." FIELD 152. SABIN 6370 ("very rare"). AMERICAN IMPRINTS 16140. GRAFF 1324. STREETER, AMERICANA BEGINNINGS, 45 (first edition). PHILLIPS, AMERICAN SPORTING BOOKS, pp.48- 49. HENDERSON, p.71. JILLSON, RARE KENTUCKY BOOKS, pp.5 & 19. JILLSON, BOONE NARRATIVE, p.52. $1,500
Predicting the Second Coming of Christ in the Politics of the Day
6. [Boudinot, Elias]: THE SECOND ADVENT, OR COMING OF THE MESSIAH IN GLORY, SHOWN TO BE A SCRIPTURE DOCTRINE, AND TAUGHT BY DIVINE REVELATION, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD. Trenton, N.J.: Published by D. Fenton & S. Hutchinson, 1815. xix,[1],152,163-578pp. Contemporary speckled sheep, spine ruled in gilt, gilt leather spine label. Small nick at head of spine near rear joint. Lacks front free endpapers. Moderate foxing and tanning. Leaf F with a tear in outer margin, with no loss of paper and not affecting text. Contemporary manuscript notes on pp.192 & 263. Very good.
A late work by the Revolutionary statesman and Federalist politician, Elias Boudinot, exemplary of his attention late in life to matters of the soul. It is also reflective of the postmillenarian thought spreading through the American countryside during the early years of the Second Great Awakening. "The French Revolution made a profound impression on Boudinot's mind, and that event led him to carefully examine the Bible for prophecies of the Second Coming of Christ" - Felcone. In this work he melds commentary on the Old and New Testaments with a review of current affairs, especially in Europe, citing the rise of Napoleon as evidence of the coming of end times. Boudinot was a leader in the creation of the American Bible Society the year after this work was published. FELCONE, NEW JERSEY BOOKS 432. SINGERMAN 0241. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 34180. $600
7. Bratt, John: PIONEER FREIGHTING DAYS WITH OX TEAMS IN 1866 [caption title]. [North Platte, Ne. 1917]. [4]pp. on a folded quarto sheet. Fine.
A rare account of overland travel and a freight drive from Nebraska City to Fort Sedgwick, Colorado (near present-day Julesburg), in 1866. John Bratt's (1842-1918) ultimate goal was to reach the gold region in Galletine Valley, Montana, but this text is concerned with his leadership of a six-yoke ox team carrying government freight along the Platte River Road. He describes the sites and stops along the way, trouble with Indians, and occasional trouble with his fellow teamsters, some of whom were too fond of drink or gambling. Five copies are located in OCLC, at the Huntington Library, Denver Public Library, Yale, Princeton, and the Univ. of Utah. There is also a copy in the John Bratt Collection at the Autry Museum. Not in Mattes, nor in White's PUBLISHED SOURCES ON TERRITORIAL NEBRASKA, both of which list only Bratt's much more common book, TRAILS OF YESTERDAY, published in 1921. Rare. OCLC 960055055, 27961288. $275
German Emigrant Guide to Texas and California
8. Bromme, Traugott, and Johann Buttner: LEITFADEN FUR AUSWANDERER NACH DEN VEREINIGTEN STAATEN VON NORD-AMERIKA, TEXAS, BRASILIEN ETC.... Bamberg. 1853. [4],232pp. Half title. Contemporary half cloth and paper-covered boards, printed paper label on front board. Binding expertly mended; boards worn around the edges, some paper stripped from rear board, rear endpapers lacking. Foxing and occasional staining (mostly marginal). Good.
A rare German emigrant guide to Texas and California extracted from Bromme's handbook for travelers, which was originally published in the 1830s. "Based on actual travels this constituted the most extensive source of information for emigration-minded Europeans. There were...extracted portions devoted to individual states or regions" - Howes. Special attention is paid to legal issues, including naturalization, land titles, wills, marital law, landlord/tenant questions, deeds and mortgages, chattel mortgages, and more. Not in Cowan, Raines, or Rader. OCLC locates only three copies - at Yale, the Cincinnati Public Library, and the Zurich Central Library. Rare. HOWES B800. SABIN 8206. OCLC 28285518. $500
An Essential Narrative of Early San Francisco
9. Brown, John Henry: REMINISCENCES AND INCIDENTS, OF "THE EARLY DAYS" OF SAN FRANCISCO. ACTUAL EXPERIENCES OF AN EYE-WITNESS, FROM 1845 TO 1850. San Francisco: Mission Journal Publishing Co., [1886]. [106]pp., plus folding frontispiece plan. Original mustard cloth, stamped in gilt and blind. Cloth lightly soiled and shelfworn, front hinge a trifle weak. Near fine.
Thomas W. Streeter's copy, with a brief pencil note in his hand in the margin of one text page (see below for further provenance information). One of the essential primary sources for the early history of San Francisco in the years immediately preceding and following the discovery of gold. "John Henry Brown was a fur trader, bartender, citizen-soldier, hotel builder, capitalist, man of affairs, and author" - Zamorano 80. He was a well-known character in San Francisco in the late 1840's, operating hotels, gathering stories, and observing firsthand the raucous growth of the city. "He loaded his narrative with more names per paragraph than a Bancroft footnote, and it seemed that at one time or another, he encountered just about every famous personality in California during the years 1845-1850" - Gary Kurutz (in the catalogue of the Volkmann Zamorano 80 sale). The final eight pages contain descriptions of the forty-eight parcels of land shown on the folding frontispiece plan. The plan shows the area bordered by Pine, Mason, Broadway, and Montgomery streets, then as now a significant portion of downtown, with several lots numbered. "A little work of much historical value" - Cowan. "Diverting discussion by an engaging early character" - Wheat. "Issued from an obscure printing house and a very small number were printed" - Holliday.
Though without his characteristic pencil notes on the front endpapers nor bearing the "TWS" bookplate affixed by Parke-Bernet Galleries to his books during the auction, we are sure that this is the Thomas W. Streeter copy. A brief pencil note in the margin of page ten correcting a misspelling in the text is in Streeter's characteristic handwriting. Interestingly, in the note on the entry for this title in the Streeter catalogue, Streeter remarks that Brown's "book contains much information concerning those early times but is a mass of printing errors and misspelled names." Furthermore, now-erased pencil notes on the front free endpaper appear to be those of Streeter's. The Streeter copy was purchased by bookseller Michael Ginsberg of the firm Western Hemisphere, and Ginsberg's (later erased) pencil notes are still visible in the upper outer corner of the front free endpaper. Finally, a small oval abrasion on the front pastedown, indicating the removal of a bookplate, is the same size and shape of the "TWS" bookplate. ZAMORANO
80, 10. COWAN, p.77. ROCQ 8429. WHEAT, GOLD RUSH 23. KURUTZ 88a. HOWES B853, "b." STREETER SALE 2999 (this copy). GRAFF 429. HOWELL 50:331. HOLLIDAY SALE 136. $4,500
Grabhorn Press Edition, One of 25 Copies with a Contemporary Document Bound In
10. Brown, John Henry: REMINISCENCES AND INCIDENTS OF EARLY DAYS OF SAN FRANCISCO (1845-50). San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, [1933]. [14],138,[7]pp., plus two facsimiles and a folding plan printed on green paper, a photographic portrait, and three facsimile documents (photographically reproduced) on four leaves. Contemporary manuscript document bound in (see below). Original burgundy niger morocco, spine gilt, raised bands. Spine and upper portion of boards lightly sunned. A bit of light foxing. Near fine.
The Grabhorn printing of John Henry Brown's memoir of the history of San Francisco in the years immediately preceding and following the discovery of gold, first published in 1886. This is copy number 12 from a special edition of twenty-five copies, bound in full morocco, with a contemporary document bound in, and with facsimiles and photographic reproductions, including a portrait of Brown. This copy is signed by printer Edwin Grabhorn and by Douglas Watson, who provided an introduction and reader's guide. The contemporary document bound into this copy is an 1850 statement signed by John G. Bates attesting to improvements he has made on land near Mission Dolores, and proclaiming his title to the land. The document is further signed by Horace Hawes as Prefect of San Francisco, and by Francisco Guerrero, former alcalde of Yerba Buena and the sub-prefect of Mission Dolores, who attests to Bates's improvements. This is number 10 in the first Grabhorn series of Rare Americana.
"John Henry Brown was a fur trader, bartender, citizen-soldier, hotel builder, capitalist, man of affairs, and author" - Zamorano 80. He was a well-known character in San Francisco in the late 1840's, operating hotels, gathering stories, and observing firsthand the raucous growth of the city. "He loaded his narrative with more names per paragraph than a Bancroft footnote, and it seemed that at one time or another, he encountered just about every famous personality in California during the years 1845-1850" - Gary Kurutz (in the catalogue of the Volkmann Zamorano 80 sale). The final pages contain descriptions of the forty- eight parcels of land shown on the folding plan. The plan shows the area bordered by Pine, Mason, Broadway, and Montgomery streets, then as now a significant portion of downtown, with several lots numbered.
"A little work of much historical value" - Cowan, this limited edition enhanced by contemporary document, and by Douglas Watson's introduction and historical notes. The only other copy of this special limited edition that we can find at auction sold for $3600 in 2008. GRABHORN BIBLIOGRAPHY 190. ZAMORANO 80, 10. ROCQ 8430. KURUTZ 88b. HOWES B853, aa." HOWELL 50:1301. COWAN, p.77 (1886 edition). $2,000
Important Kansas Promotional
11. Burke, W.S., and Rock, J.L.: THE HISTORY OF LEAVENWORTH, THE METROPOLIS OF KANSAS, AND THE CHIEF COMMERCIAL CENTER WEST OF THE MISSOURI RIVER. THE SUPERIOR MERCANTILE AND MANUFACTURING FACILITIES OF THE CITY. THE AGRICULTURAL ADVANTAGES OF LEAVENWORTH COUNTY IMPARTIALLY DISCUSSED. Leavenworth, Ks.: Leavenworth Times Book and Job Printing Establishment, 1880. 80,[16]pp., including in-text illustrations (one of them full-page), plus two full-page illustrations on one leaf, and three full- page advertisement leaves. Original pictorial wrappers. Wrappers lightly soiled, small chip in lower outer corner of front wrapper, neat repairs to spine ends. Very clean internally. Very good. In a folding cloth box, gilt leather spine label.
Designed to promote settlement and investment in the town and county of Leavenworth. Strengths in manufacturing and finance are highlighted, and several different types of businesses are described and depicted. The illustrations are quite attractive, showing the courthouse (on the rear wrapper), a few noteworthy residences, and the facades and interiors of several businesses. "The early history is largely from the pen of H. Miles Moore, and goes back to 1854 when the first train of 32 emigrants from Weston pulled up on the Delaware Trust Lands and located the town site" - Eberstadt. The front wrapper asserts that 50,000 copies were issued by the Leavenworth Board of Trade, though this is almost certainly an exaggeration. Scarce in the market. DARY, KANZANA 200. HOWES B985, "aa." GRAFF 488. EBERSTADT 137:90. $1,500
Scarce Promotional for Railroad Lands in Nebraska and Iowa
12. Burlington and Missouri River Railroad: TREMENDOUS CROPS!!! A SUCCESSFUL REGION!!! GLAD TIDINGS FOR THE FALL AND WINTER OF 1877 AND 1878. SOUTHERN IOWA & SOUTH-EASTERN NEBRASKA AHEAD. THE OLD B. & M. R.R. HAS THE LARGEST & FINEST CROPS, THE MOST SUCCESSFUL SETTLERS. THE BEST & CHEAPEST LANDS. THE LONGEST CREDITS & LOWEST INTEREST. CHEAPEST FARES & FREIGHTS [wrapper title]. St. Louis: A. Gast & Co., [1877]. 31,[1]pp., including two full-page plates, plus three maps (on verso of front wrapper and recto and verso of rear wrapper). [4]pp. circular laid in. Original printed yellow wrappers. Wrappers lightly soiled, with a few small chips in the edges. Quite clean internally. Very good.
A scarce and interesting promotional for the sale of 1,000,000 acres of land owned along the routes of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. The Burlington and Missouri put out some of the most interesting and compelling railroad land promotionals in the genre, nicely illustrated with maps and plates, and this example is no exception. The maps show the lands for sale along the line of the railroad from Monroe, Iowa, to Omaha; lands in Nebraska from Omaha to Kearney (along the South Platte); and a map showing railroad routes from Chicago the Cheyenne. The plates are entitled "Looking Southwest from Lincoln, Neb." and "Valley of the Big Blue South of Seward, Neb." The text is devoted to detailed descriptions of the land, including natural resources, soil, climate, stock raising and homesteading opportunities, and prices for land and for goods. This publication enjoyed some success; another promotional, issued the next year, advertised only 750,000 acres of land left for sale, indicating that the Burlington and Missouri had sold off a quarter million acres of land the previous year. Laid into this copy is a four-page "Circular of Rates on Tickets and Freight" for several railroads, including the Burlington & Missouri. Not in Railway Economics, nor in the Eberstadt or Decker catalogues. OCLC locates three copies, at the American Antiquarian Society, Harvard Business School Library, and the DeGolyer Library. There is also a copy at Yale. Quite scarce. OCLC 6011024. $950
Amateur Newspaper, Printed on a Hand Press
13. [California Newspaper]: RED HOT. CALIFORNIANS' OWN PRIDE. ARDENTIA VERBA! VOL. I. NO. I [two variant printings]. Santa Cruz, Ca. May, 1873. Two variant examples of the first issue, each 4pp. Unfolded sheets. Very light wear, else fine.
Two variant printings of the first - and quite possibly the only - issue of this amateur newspaper, printed on a handpress in Santa Cruz, California. The motto of the newspaper was "Ardentia Verba" - words that burn. Present here are two variant printings of this issue, one printed all in black, the second with the title in red and black. Apparently the brainchild of job printer Tom C. Cooper, who is identified in the masthead as "fuel furnisher and bellows blower." This issue carries a work of fiction on the front page, and continues with assessments of other amateur newspapers (and advertisements for them) and an editor's statement asserting that RED HOT "will be an Amateur in the widest sense of the term, being edited, contributed to and printed solely by boys." The text and ads ably transmit the growing
consciousness of an amateur newspaper publishing community. OCLC records only two holdings, at UC Santa Cruz and Indiana University, which have only this first issue. There are also copies at the California State Library and Yale. OCLC 248008619. $95
Rare California Nursery Catalogue
14. [California Nursery Catalogue]: ROBERT WILLIAMSON. JAMES A. ANDERSON. CAPITAL NURSERIES, SACRAMENTO, CAL., AND ORANGE HILL NURSERIES, PENRYN, PLACER COUNTY, CAL. WILLIAMSON & CO., PROPRIETORS. CATALOGUE OF THE SEASON OF 1879- 80.... Sacramento: H.S. Crocker & Co., 1879. 24pp. 24mo. Original printed wrappers. Front wrapper and following five leaves neatly clipped in upper outer corner, with no loss of text. Rear wrapper tape- repaired. Very good.
A rare catalogue for two northern California nurseries. Scores of trees, shrubs, and flowers are described, with prices listed for each. Included are a number of stone fruits and nut-bearing trees, as well as such modern staple crops as grapes and almonds. At least two varieties are of Asian origin, including Chinese cling peaches ("claimed to be the best peach in the world") and Japanese persimmons. Catalogues for the Capital and Orange Hill nurseries are scarce in institutional collections, and in the market. OCLC notes only two libraries holding any copies at all: the Huntington Library (1871-72 season only) and the National Agricultural Library (1888-89, 1893, and 1894 seasons only). $375
With an 1852 Letter from a Miner
15. [California Pictorial Letter Sheet]: Cairns, Andrew W.: A VIEW OF THE [ELEPHANT]. [with:] [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM MINER ANDREW W. CAIRNS TO WILLIAM CAIRNS, DATED OCTOBER 3, 1852, AT GRAY EAGLE CITY, CALIFORNIA, DISCUSSING HIS EXPERIENCES PARTICIPATING IN A FLUMING OPERATION ON THE MIDDLE FORK OF THE AMERICAN RIVER, AND THE DISAPPOINTING RESULTS]. [San Francisco: Published and sold by Cooke & LeCount?, before October, 1852]. Pictorial letter sheet, 10 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches, on blue wove paper, with a [1]p. autograph letter, signed, on the attached bifolium. Old folds, with neat separation along much of the central vertical fold, and slight separation along a few of the other folds and cross-folds. Some slight discoloration to the sheet. About very good.
An attractive California pictorial letter sheet, enhanced by the presence of an 1852 letter from a miner to his relative. The letter sheet features eight charmingly crude woodcut illustrations showing scenes in the experiences of a California gold miner, all surrounding a central vignette of an elephant, the popular metaphor for the wonders to be found in the land of gold. The title of the sheet is derived from that center illustration, which shows an elephant standing before California mountains, encircled by a wreath and with the numbers "10000" and "15000" on either side, and the printed text "A View of the" appearing below the elephant. The vignettes show the ship Eliza sailing for California; an argonaut arriving at a "S.F. Monte Bank"; miners travelling by foot following a burro, "camping out" (as a bear and two deer look on) and a pair of miners preparing their dinner with their tent in the background. Another illustration show miners washing gold in a cradle, while the final two depict potential ends for prospective miners: returning to a ship in San Francisco Bay with a small bag of gold, or dead - with a skull and bones beside a fresh grave mound.
Gudde tells us that Gray Eagle was a mining camp in El Dorado County, on the Middle Fork of the American River, below Eureka Bar and Horseshoe Bar. That is where Andrew W. Cairns was when he penned a letter on this letter sheet on October 3, 1852. He writes William Cairns (perhaps his father), relating that on October 1 he received William's letter of May 9. He goes on to describe the disappointing results of his involvement in a mining flume company on the American River (misspellings corrected): "I wrote to you [last spring] regarding the discouraging account of my mining operation. They have been more discouraging since then. The miners here are nearly all singing a very popular song which I will give you the first line: 'I have flumed the river and I have not got a dime.' I have been engaged the past summer in the Eureka Bar Fluming Company. We flumed about 14 hundred feet at a cost of $7500 besides the labor of 25 men since the first of May up to the present time which has proved a total failure and we have abandoned it....I have flumed the river and I have not got a dime. There is about 3 miles of flume all joined commencing at the...Horseshoe Bend Co. which created so much excitement last year and proved a failure. This piece of flume has proved almost a total failure from beginning to end. I understand the miners have been more successful further down the river in their fluming operation. Gray Eagle City is on the middle fork of the American River about 4 miles above Big Bar."
This example is a variant of the letter sheet described by Baird, and of the three copies found in the Clifford collection, lacking any imprint information and with the letter "s" printed backward in two of the vignette captions. BAIRD, CALIFORNIA'S PICTORIAL LETTER SHEETS 293. CLIFFORD LETTER SHEET COLLECTION 301-303. PETERS, CALIFORNIA ON STONE, pp.102-103, plate 55. GUDDE, GOLD CAMPS, p.142. $1,950
16. [California Water]: CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT CALIFORNIA...WATER CONSERVATION FOR FLOOD CONTROL - RIVER NAVIGATION - IRRIGATION - SALINITY CONTROL - ELECTRIC POWER - RECREATION - DOMESTIC & INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY. [Baltimore]: A. Hoen & Co. Lith., [ca. 1940]. Broadside with lithographed map, 17 x 11 inches, featuring nine small illustrations and additional text. Old folds. Evenly tanned, small pinholes in each corner. Very good.
An interesting and attractive map and broadside, promoting the virtues of the Central Valley Project, a major undertaking begun in the 1930s to provide a steady and reliable source of water to farmers and inhabitants in the agriculturally fertile, yet climatologically dry Central Valley of California. The main feature is an attractive colored map of California with the northern part of the state at the left edge and the southern portion at the far right. The map shows the state from the Oregon border all the way south to the Salton Sea, and highlights the many projects underway as part of the Project, including the construction of the Shasta and Friant dams, and the creation of a number of canals and water channels, many of them growing out of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The text explains the benefits of the Project to residents and farmers, and the illustrations show dams under construction, the ravages of uncontrolled rivers, and the benefits of irrigation to crops. $100
Important Reports on Mexico’s Plans to Colonize California
17. [California]: COLECCION DE LOS PRINCIPALES TRABAJOS EN QUE SE HA OCUPADO LA JUNTA NOMBRADA PARA MEDITAR Y PROPONER AL SUPREMO GOBIERNO LOS MEDIOS MAS NECESARIOS PARA PROMOVER EL PROGRESO DE LA CULTURA Y CIVILIZACION DE LOS TERRITORIOS DE LA ALTA Y DE LA BAJA CALIFORNIA. [Mexico City]. 1827. [2],16,11,[1],8,18,44,14,[2],14,[2],9-24,[1] pp., plus four folding charts. Small quarto. Contemporary plain wrappers. Wrappers a bit soiled and edgeworn. A few worm tracks throughout the entirety, the widest appearing in the upper margin, else very good.
A rare and fundamentally important collection of documents outlining the Mexican plan for the colonization of California. Mexico feared that English, Russian, or American settlers would eventually overrun California, and so formed the Junta de Fomento de Californias to strengthen the Mexican presence in upper and lower California. This copy is complete with all eight titles.
"The decisive step taken by Madrid in 1769 in founding San Diego and Monterey as a means of definite claim to California had not been followed by a sufficient increase in population to keep the area from threatened absorption by the growing Anglo-Saxon population on the Columbia River. These various plans were devised in order to tie California more firmly to the Mexican Republic" - Streeter Sale. These plans were devised by the Junta, and aimed to increase Mexican colonization in California, and to establish Monterey as a commercial capital dominating trade in the Pacific. It was proposed to grant lands to Mexican colonists, to provide them with money, livestock, and tools to aid their settlement. The pamphlets each have their own titlepage and pagination, and consist of a study of Anglo-American and Russian activity in California; a plan for the administration of the missions; a system of laws for the better government of California; and plans for mercantile development and for establishing direct trade between Monterey and the Pacific, including the founding of an "Asiatic-Mexican company." Two of the pamphlets relate directly to colonization plans, including those encouraging Mexican colonization and another for an orderly, controlled colonization by foreigners, with plates featuring a grid layout for development, which became a basis for California land grant laws.
Howes notes only seven parts, failing to list the concluding plan for the establishment of an Asian- Mexican company. The Streeter copy also lacked this concluding part. A primary document for the development of California. COWAN, p.320-321. BARRETT 1355. HOWES C45, "d." SABIN 9997. STREETER SALE 2462. NORRIS CATALOGUE 1910. $9,000
Blueprint Map of Colorado Mines
18. [Colorado]: Rank, S.A.: PROPERTIES OF THE BERTHA G.M. AND M. CO GILPIN COUNTY COLORADO. [Denver? n.d., ca. 1900]. Blueprint map, 12 3/4 x 20 1/2 inches. Old folds. Small split along outer edge of one fold, not affecting map image. Near fine.
Not much is known of the Bertha Gold Mining and Milling Company. Stock certificates were issued, and the Denver-based company produced a prospectus and a single "Weekly Report" in 1901, each located by OCLC in only a single copy, at the Denver Public Library. Neither of those publications is described as having a blueprint map, and this map was likely separately issued. It shows more than a dozen properties claimed by the company in a crowded region in Gilpin County, each full claim measuring 1500 feet. Many of the Bertha Company's claims overlap those of other mining concerns, no doubt leading to legal issues. The map was drawn by surveyor S.A. Rank. By 1904 the MINING REPORTER periodical was reporting that the company was being offered for sale. $175
19. Compton, H.T.: MAP OF THE CITY OF STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA PROPERTY OF THE WEBER HOME COMPANY SHOWN IN RED. San Francisco: Dakin Publishing Co., 1901. Map, partially colored, 21¼ x 28¼ inches, promotional literature in the left and right margins. Four panels of promotional text on the verso, entitled STOCKTON ITS RESOURCES AND ADVANTAGES. Old folds. Edgewear and several small tears in the edges. Heavily tape-repaired on the verso. Good only.
A large, attractive, and rare map of Stockton at the turn of the century, issued by the Weber Home Company. The verso of the map contains a four-page text, entitled STOCKTON ITS RESOURCES AND ADVANTAGES, touting the location, manufacturing advantages, agricultural resources, and high wages available. Stockton was founded in 1849, at the start of the Gold Rush, by Charles Weber (1814-1881), a German immigrant who came to America in 1836 and went on to California five years later. The Weber Home Company was incorporated in 1901 by his son, Charles Martin Weber (identified as "capitalist and land owner") and sold home lots in the northwest, northeast, and southwest parts of Stockton, all part of the original Charles Weber grant with title "absolutely perfect and direct." Those available lots are shown in red and numbered in the present map, numbering 1500 lots in all. They are offered for $100 cash, or $120 in twelve equal installments, and the lots measured 50 x 100 and 50 x 150 feet. The map also shows the course of the Stockton Channel and Mormon Slough, warehouses, public parks, the Santa Fe Railroad yard, the Holt Harvester Manufacturing Company, factories, and more. The names of all the streets are listed, and the map shows the entirety of Stockton within its city limits, bounded by North, South, East, and West streets. The map is taken from the "Official Map of the City of Stockton" by Harry Trueman Compton, created in 1901. OCLC locates only a single copy, at the Bancroft Library. Rare. OCLC 52636288. $750
20. Crofutt, George A.: CROFUTT'S TRANS-CONTINENTAL TOURIST'S GUIDE, CONTAINING A FULL AND AUTHENTIC DESCRIPTION OF OVER FIVE HUNDRED CITIES, TOWNS, VILLAGES, STATIONS, GOVERNMENT FORTS AND CAMPS...WHERE TO GO - HOW TO GO - AND WHOM TO STOP WITH WHILE PASSING OVER THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD, CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD OF CAL., THEIR BRANCHES AND CONNECTIONS BY STAGE AND WATER, FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. ILLUSTRATED. FOURTH VOL., THIRD ANNUAL REVISE. New York: Geo. A. Crofutt, [1872]. 224,[8]pp., including numerous illustrations and maps, plus six folding sheets containing maps, illustrations, and text. Engraved titlepage. 12mo. Original plum cloth, front board stamped in gilt, a.e.g. Cloth sunned along spine and edges. Very clean internally. Very good, and an attractive copy of a book often found in poor or incomplete condition.
George Crofutt began issuing his guides in 1869, the year of the completion of the transcontinental railroad, and they were immediately successful, proceeding through numerous annual editions and various changes of the title. Howes asserts that the compiler of the guide was H. Wallace Atwell, and the informative (and occasionally humorous) tone of the text very much reminds us of another Atwell-penned railroad guide that we have handled. The guide is quite remarkable for its level of detail, giving frank practical advice to travelers, describing small towns along the routes and their potential for settlers, commenting on topography and natural wonders, noting river crossings and their reliability, etc. There are also interesting anecdotes sprinkled throughout, including a note that Laramie was the first place in America where a female jury was empaneled, and also including a biographical sketch of Brigham Young (with a portrait and a view of his home, the "Beehive"). Five of the six folding sheets include maps, among them a map of Omaha and Council Bluff, another of Yellowstone, and a map of Salt Lake City. One of the folding sheets contains a view of the planned Union Pacific station in Omaha, the eastern terminus of the line. There is also a single-page map showing rail and stage routes to Yosemite and the Big Trees, and among the many illustrations are the "snow sheds" built by the Central Pacific through the Sierra Nevada, and the Golden Spike ceremony. HOWES C901. SABIN 17587. FLAKE 2596 (all for earlier editions). $425
Rare Account of Several Trips to the West in a Private Railcar
21. Cummings, Charles H.: WESTERN TRIPS IN 1887 AND 1890 [comprised of:] SPECIAL TRIP TO COLORADO AND CALIFORNIA, IN THE WAGNER PRIVATE CAR "WANDERER." 1887 [and] SPECIAL TRIP TO COLORADO, CALIFORNIA AND ALASKA, IN THE WAGNER PRIVATE CAR "MARQUITA." 1890. [BOUND WITH FIVE OTHER ACCOUNTS OF CUMMINGS' TRIPS TO EUROPE]. [No place. circa 1893-1894]. 32 leaves., plus the five other accounts: 49;33;14;18,[5];[1],26 leaves., printed on rectos only. Each account with a pale green title wrapper. Quarto. Contemporary moire cloth, spine gilt. Cloth lightly sunned, front hinge weak, else fine.
Charles H. Cummings, a New Englander who made his fortune in railroads, coal, and streetcars, made trips to the American West in private railcars in 1887 and 1890. He had accounts of those two trips privately printed in small numbers for circulation among his friends, along with narratives of five other trips to Europe in the 1880s and 1890s. The first western trip was made in 1887 and went through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, with a side trip from Los Angeles to San Diego and Ensenada. The narrative of this trip focuses mostly on the return trip, with brief descriptions of Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. His second trip west, in 1890, went to Colorado, California, Yellowstone and the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and western Canada. A week was spent in Yosemite with a visit to the Big Trees, and there is also an account of San Francisco's Chinatown. Yellowstone also receives a substantial description, as does the visit to Alaska. The trips to Europe each contain a detailed itinerary, and include trips to England, France, and Italy in 1883, and more extensive trip to England, Ireland, and Europe in 1887-1888, 1889, 1891, and 1894.
The trips are numbered sequentially, but there is no account of a "fifth trip" to Europe. This matches the copies at Yale and at Brigham Young University, which also lack a fifth trip. This absence might be accounted for by positing the western trips as the "fifth" trip in the series. Not in the Eberstadt or Decker catalogues, nor in Streeter. These accounts of Cummings' trips to the American West and to Europe are quite rare in the market, and in institutional collections. SMITH, PACIFIC NORTHWEST AMERICANA 2147. $2,500
22. Dix, Dorothea L.: MEMORIAL OF D.L. DIX, PRAYING A GRANT OF LAND FOR THE RELIEF AND SUPPORT OF THE INDIGENT CURABLE AND INCURABLE INSANE IN THE UNITED STATES [caption title]. Washington: Tippin & Streeper, 1848. 32pp. Gathered signatures, string-tied as issued. Ex-Smithsonian Institution, with their small inkstamp on the first page. A bit soiled, marginal ink stain in the final gathering. Very good. Untrimmed and unopened.
This Memorial to the federal government marked a shift in Dorothea Dix's focus from incremental reform at the state level to making the treatment of the indigent insane a federal responsibility. Specifically, she calls on the government to earmark funds from the sale of public lands toward building facilities for the mentally ill across the nation. Dix argues that increase in population is only resulting in an ever-growing number of mentally ill in the United States, and she presents an impressive array of statistics and stories from her own travels across the nation to support her argument. "I have myself seen more than nine thousand idiots, epileptics, and insane, in these United States, destitute of appropriate care and protection; and of this vast and most miserable company, sought out in jails, in poor-houses, and in private dwellings, there have been hundreds, nay, rather thousands, bound with galling chains, bowed beneath fetters and heavy iron balls, attached to drag-chains, lacerated with ropes, scourged with rods, and terrified beneath storms of profane execrations and cruel blows; now subject to gibes, and scorn, and torturing tricks - now abandoned to the most loathsome necessities, or subject to the vilest and most outrageous violations. These are strong terms, but language fails to convey the astounding truths." Despite significant support, Dix's Memorial was rejected by Congress, but her efforts had now brought the issue of the treatment of the insane to a national level. This is Senate Document 150 of the 1st Session of the 30th Congress.
OCLC lists only microfilm and digital copies. Rare, and a significant document in the history of antebellum social reform and women's activism. $425
Important Early Account of Central America
23. Dunn, Henry: GUATIMALA, OR, THE UNITED PROVINCES OF CENTRAL AMERICA, IN 1827-8; BEING SKETCHES AND MEMORANDUMS MADE DURING A TWELVE MONTHS' RESIDENCE AT THAT REPUBLIC. New York: G. & C. Carvill, 1828. 318pp., plus [1]p. of errata. Contemporary plain paper boards backed with modern calf, gilt morocco spine label. Boards lightly shelfworn. Ex-library, with the bookplate of the Fitchburg Athenaeum on the front pastedown, and their small oval blindstamp on the titlepage. Scattered foxing. Good plus. Untrimmed.
First edition of this thorough description of Guatemala and Central America generally, published in the wake of the independence movements of the area. Dunn describes his voyage from England, with stops at Jamaica, Belize, the Mosquito Coast and Yucatan before arriving at Guatemala. He comments on slave populations, climate, disease, immigration, Indians, customs, superstitions, etc. Once in Guatemala Dunn describes the capital city, the social scene there, public morals, education, the prison system, village life, religion, and more. One chapter focuses on amusements, and describes booksellers, the literary culture, bullfights, theatre, and fine arts. Part three includes a lengthy history of the revolutionary movement earlier in the decade, and another chapter is devoted to the native population. "One of the classic travelogues, written by an Anglican clergyman traveling in company with the Dutch consul general during the conflicts relating to the independence movement" - Grieb. In the preface, Dunn explains that he desired a map to accompany this first edition, but that he could not find one that was adequate. An English edition, with a map, was published in London the following year. GRIEB GU 392. PALAU 77296. SABIN 21320. GRIFFIN 3558. $650
First Book on the Lake Tahoe Region
24. Edwards, W.F. (publisher): Irons, Charles D. (editor and compiler): W.F. EDWARDS' TOURISTS' GUIDE AND DIRECTORY OF THE TRUCKEE BASIN. Truckee, Ca.: "Republican" Job Print, 1883. 137,[43]pp., plus eight plates (including frontispiece). 12mo. Original green cloth, front board gilt. Textblock edges stained red. Cloth a bit rubbed and lightly soiled, wear at corners and spine ends expertly repaired, hinges mended, new rear free endpaper. Small tears in lower gutter of a few leaves or plates. Very good.
The first book on the Lake Tahoe-Truckee region, valuable for its history and descriptions, illustrations, directory information, and advertisements for local businesses. Quebedeaux notes that the present work is also one of the first two guides to a section of the High Sierra outside of Yosemite. The information herein was gathered by Irons and Edwards from a variety of sources, including newspaper editor Charles McGlashan, author of a famed account of the Donner Party. The text includes an extended description of Lake Tahoe, directories of Truckee and the communities of Boca and Clinton, and sketches of the abandoned villages of Knoxville, Elizabethtown, and Claraville, short-lived settlements along Squaw Creek and Kings Beach that sprung up after the discovery of gold and silver in the early 1860s. The history of Truckee and descriptions of area lakes and industries are highly important, and the text also includes sketches of local newspapers, cattle and sheep raising, and Truckee's "601" Vigilance Committee. The full-page illustrations include views of Donner Lake, Tahoe City and Lake Tahoe, and lumber mills. Some of the prints are based on photographs by Truckee photographer, H.K. Gage. The forty-three unnumbered pages following the main text are advertisements for a variety of local businesses, including the Truckee merchant, Quong Sing Lung, "which also furnish [sic] all kinds of Chinese labor at the Lowest Rates."
"Extremely scarce. First book on the region, and antedating by a year Fulton's Directory of 1884, which heretofore has been accorded that distinction" - Norris. QUEBEDEAUX 38. ROCQ 5983. COWAN, p.192. HOWES E73, "aa." PAHER 539 ("scarce"). NORRIS CATALOGUE 1046. STREETER SALE 2982. $3,250
Rare Memoir of a Famed Western Saddle Maker
25. Gallatin: E.L.: WHAT LIFE HAS TAUGHT ME. Denver: Jno. Frederic, Printer, [1900]. [2],215pp., plus portrait. Original black cloth. Light wear to corners and spine ends. Front hinge cracked, but holding firm. Near fine.
A presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper, "To my friends Mr. & Mrs. Shrewbury / I donate a copy of what life / has taught me / Denver May 26th 1905." This copy is also signed by Gallatin beneath his frontispiece portrait.
Rare, privately printed memoir by the famed Western saddle maker, Edward L. Gallatin, with a long description of his involvement in a communal colony. A prominent Colorado pioneer, his "stockman's saddle" was used widely throughout the West, and all leading towns had a warehouse for its distribution. Gallatin recounts his life experiences, his long apprenticeship, and his career as a saddle maker. He also describes his 1860 trip across the Plains to the Pike's Peak gold region, where he hoped to provide saddles to recently-arrived miners, and also gives an interesting description of a difficult trip made in the late winter of 1864 from Denver to Virginia City, Montana. There is much on the early history of Denver, criminals and vigilantes, and the founding of Cheyenne and Laramie. In 1895 Gallatin (then in his mid- sixties) became a member of the Colorado Co-operative Company, a communistic community managed by B.L. Smith. One of the first to file for land in the colony, Gallatin was an enthusiastic supporter of the project, writing that "narrow, selfish people have no business in a colony. They breed discontent and look with jealous eyes on every fault on all occasions." A good portion of the text is devoted to the affairs of
this Colorado colony, and to Gallatin's observations on communal colonies and co-operatives in the West generally.
Not in the Eberstadt or Decker catalogues, nor in the catalogues of the Streeter or Holliday sales. We are aware of only three copies at auction in at least the past fifty years. Rare. HOWES G32, "aa." WYNAR 1262. GRAFF 1490. EBERSTADT, MODERN OVERLANDS 175. WILCOX, p.47. $3,000
Beautiful Etchings of American Ships
26. Gleason, J. Duncan: Gleason, Dorothy: Wall, Bernhardt: WINDJAMMERS. New York: Bernhardt Wall, 1922. [28] etched leaves in total, including limitation leaf, title leaf, and twenty-six leaves of etchings and text, printed on rectos only. Plus facsimile letter from Franklin Roosevelt to Wall tipped in at front. Tall quarto. Original half cloth and pictorial paper boards. Fine. In a very good plain dustjacket (neatly split along the front joint), printed paper spine label.
Number 107 from an edition limited to 325 copies. The lovely etchings are by Bernhardt Wall after illustrations by J. Duncan Gleason. The brief, evocative, text (often in the form of poetry) was written by Dorothy Glean. Twelve of the illustrations (ten full-page and two smaller) are etchings of ships; the remainder feature text with smaller illustrations.
J. Duncan Gleason (1881-1959) was a prolific and popular illustrator with a long interest in nautical scenes and the sea, and this work is a paean in images and text to sailing and to American naval prowess. The illustrations include etchings of the U.S.S. Constitution and other military ships, the whaler Charles W. Morgan, the clipper ships that carried so many argonauts to the gold fields of California, the ocean liner, and many more. This copy is signed by both Gleasons and Wall on the limitation leaf, and includes the tipped-in facsimile of a letter from Franklin Roosevelt to Wall complimenting him on the work. The final two blank leaves each bear a brief pencil note, "1/16/55, Mrs. Wall, Pasadena Calif." $2,500
CDV of the Preacher at the First Church in the California Gold Region
27. [Gold Rush]: [Seymour, Bela N.]: [ORIGINAL CARTE DE VISITE PORTRAIT OF REV. BELA N. SEYMOUR, WHO ESTABLISHED THE FIRST CHURCH IN THE CALIFORNIA GOLD MINING REGION]. [San Francisco?]: S.P. Sanders, Traveling Photographer, [circa 1865]. Original carte de visite photograph 3 3/4 x 2 1/4 inches, affixed to a slightly larger mount. Tax stamp on verso. Light wear. Near fine.
This carte de visite is an original photograph of the Rev. Bela N. Seymour, who established the first church in the California gold mining region. Seymour and his wife came to California from New York in 1855. They settled in Oroville the next year, formed a church in 1857, and by 1858 they had constructed their own brick building. Oroville (and the gold regions generally) certainly needed religion during the Gold Rush. In his memoir of his time there, Seymour described the settlement of some 4000 as "the wickedest mining camp in California." Seymour would go on to found other churches in California in the 1850s to 1870s, before returning to his native New England, where he preached for several more years.
This photograph can be dated to circa 1865 by the three-cent George Washington tax stamp on the verso, which was required on photographs sold between August 1, 1864, and July 1, 1866. The verso of the mount bears the imprint of "S.P. Sanders, Traveling Photographer." Peter Palmquist notes that Sanders was active in San Francisco in 1865 and 1866. Seymour's signature is printed in the image, just below the photograph that depicts the bearded minister from the chest up.
A rare image of a pioneering Gold Rush preacher. $500
Presentation Copy
28. Green, Thomas J.: JOURNAL OF THE TEXIAN EXPEDITION AGAINST MIER; SUBSEQUENT IMPRISONMENT OF THE AUTHOR; HIS SUFFERINGS, AND FINAL ESCAPE FROM THE CASTLE OF PEROTE. WITH REFLECTIONS UPON THE PRESENT POLITICAL AND PROBABLE FUTURE RELATIONS OF TEXAS, MEXICO, AND THE UNITED STATES. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1845. 487pp., plus eleven plates (including frontispiece), single-page map, and folding map. Original blindstamped brown cloth, spine gilt. Expertly rebacked, preserving most of the original backstrip. Occasional light foxing. Very good.
A presentation copy, inscribed by Green on front free endpaper "To Mr. Townsend with the authors respects." A fundamental Texas book, written by one of the leaders of the expedition against Mier. Green and his cohorts organized in late 1842 to retaliate against a Mexican incursion on San Antonio. They proceeded across the Rio Grande and attacked the town of Mier. "The attack failed, the Texans surrendered, and then began one of the dramatic episodes in Texas history, the ordeal of the long overland journey of the enlisted men to the Mexican fortress of Perote....Green was a somewhat contentious character, and his opening chapters and his general chapter at the end are marred by his hatred of Houston, but the book as a whole tells a graphic story" - Streeter. "The most important account of the tragic Texan expedition against Mier and the drawing of the black beans, this is also one of the most vitriolic Texas books" - Jenkins. The "black beans" to which Jenkins refers was Santa Anna's order that the Texan prisoners be forced to draw beans from a jar, and those drawing black beans would be executed. The remaining prisoners languished in Perote prison near Vera Cruz, from which Green and some other prisoners escaped. The other Texans were released in late 1844. A supplemental chapter gives Green's views on the future of Texas, including a recommendation that it conquer and annex Mexico, and that part of Mexico should be given to African Americans when slavery in the United States is "inevitably abolished."
The illustrations are from drawings by Charles McLaughlin, a fellow captive with Green, and show scenes of battle, prison, and escape. With regard to the quality of the narrative, Dobie summed it up best when he wrote that Green "lived in wrath and wrote with fire." "One of the most exciting accounts of the tragic affair of the Texian Expedition. As a participant Green was able to write a vivid and terrifying tale" - Graff. STREETER TEXAS 1581. BASIC TEXAS BOOKS 80. RADER 1670. RAINES, p.98. HOWES G371, "aa." SABIN 28562. DOBIE, p.55. GRAFF 1643. $1,250
With Portraits of the Three Authors
29. Hamilton, Alexander, John Jay, and James Madison: THE FEDERALIST, ON THE NEW CONSTITUTION; WRITTEN IN 1788. A NEW EDITION, WITH THE NAMES AND PORTRAITS OF THE SEVERAL WRITERS. Philadelphia: Benjamin Warner, 1818. 504pp., plus three portraits, including frontispiece portrait of Hamilton. Contemporary tree calf, expertly rebacked to style in matching calf, ruled in gilt, gilt leather spine label. New endpapers. Contemporary ownership signature of Henry B. Rogers on the titlepage. Very clean internally. Very good, and an attractive copy.
"Most famous and influential American political work" - Howes. Warner first published an edition of THE FEDERALIST in 1817, taking illustrations from a New York edition of 1810 for the portraits of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay included herein. This 1818 edition improves on that of the previous year by the addition of an appendix containing the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. FORD 24. SABIN 23984. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 44016. HOWES H114 (ref). $2,000
Notorious Gunfighter; Son of a Preacher Man
30. Hardin, John Wesley: THE LIFE OF JOHN WESLEY HARDIN, FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT, AS WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. Seguin, Tx.: Smith & Moore, 1896. 144pp., including illustrations. 12mo. Original printed wrappers. Small chip in lower edge of front wrapper. Wrappers lightly soiled, insect damage to rear wrapper (as is often the case), but not affecting any text leaves. Text with even, moderate tanning. Very good.
This is the earlier issue of the first edition, with the portrait on page three incorrectly identified as John Wesley Hardin (it is actually his brother, Joe), and without the full-page portrait of Hardin that was later inserted. Life of the legendary Texas outlaw, allegedly written by himself. The son of a preacher-lawyer, Hardin was credited with killing more than two dozen men. "The book is carefully written; in fact, so well written that some claim that it came from the pen of someone more literate than Hardin. On the other hand, Hardin was not as illiterate as many believed; he taught a frontier school as a young man, and his study of law while he was in prison no doubt improved his education. Newspapers reported that he was trying to finish his manuscript in El Paso just before he was killed. Whoever the writer was, he was careful of names and dates" - Adams. Jenkins, who did not doubt that Hardin wrote the book, elucidates: "The manuscript of Hardin's autobiography was found in his trunk. A lawsuit over the ownership of the trunk ensued. Hardin's son won control, and the book was published in 1896. Hardin's daughters objected, and the book was withdrawn from circulation a few days after publication and stored in a San Antonio warehouse. The warehouse burned and destroyed all of the edition except for 400 copies sold surreptitiously to a local bookseller." BASIC TEXAS BOOKS 84. HOWES H188. ADAMS, SIX-GUNS 919. ADAMS, ONE-FIFTY 66. RADER 1773. GRAFF 1780. $350
Final Edition of One of the Most Famous Overland Guide Books
31. Hastings, Lansford W.: A NEW DESCRIPTION OF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA: CONTAINING COMPLETE DESCRIPTIONS OF THOSE COUNTRIES, TOGETHER WITH THE OREGON TREATY AND CORRESPONDENCE, AND A VAST AMOUNT OF INFORMATION RELATING TO THE SOIL, CLIMATE, PRODUCTIONS, RIVERS AND LAKES, AND THE VARIOUS ROUTES OVER THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS...ALSO AN ACCOUNT, BY COL. R.B. MASON, OF THE GOLD REGION, AND A NEW ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. Cicinnati [sic]: H.M. Rulison, Queen City Publishing House, 1857. 160pp., including frontispiece. Titlepage vignette. Original green pictorial wrappers, expertly rebacked with matching green paper. Old bookseller's ink stamp to front wrapper. First five leaves with corners bent. Occasional faint old tidelines, mostly confined to the margins. Very good.
Ninth and final edition of what Howes calls "historically, the first California guide book." All editions are rare in the market. Lansford Hastings, an Ohio-born lawyer, first led a westward overland expedition in 1842, to Oregon. He went to California, still under Mexican control, for the first time in 1843, and harbored some ambition to bring it under American control through his own leadership. Seeking to deflect emigrants from Oregon to California, he proposed a "cutoff" route, of which he had heard from Fremont but had not travelled himself. The first edition of Hastings' guide was published in 1845, and many emigrant groups followed Hastings' route, the Donner Party experiencing the most tragic results. Hastings later served as an agent for Mormon businesses, and took part in California's 1849 Constitutional Convention. "The work consists of narratives of his trip to Oregon and to California, a discussion of the different routes to the Pacific Coast, and recommendations as to trail conduct, equipment, supplies, and methods of travel. The travel sections are interspersed with descriptive essays on Oregon and California....The larger importance of the GUIDE lay in its powerful appeal generated by its fanciful picture of California and its promise of 'as much land as you want.' Emigrants who might otherwise have chosen to go to Oregon, where the homestead laws in effect limited the amount of land that could be allotted to one individual, were thus influenced to go to California instead" - Wagner-Camp.
"Because of the difficulties encountered by almost all who took Hasting's [sic] cutoff, including the Donner Party, this is probably the most controversial of all guidebooks, and one of the most important early books concerning overland travel" - Mintz. The frontispiece depicts a soaring bald eagle, and the titlepage and front wrapper vignette shows a grazing bear. The present copy is the one offered in Howell's landmark catalogue 50 (1979), where it was priced $400 and described as "very scarce" (it has since been skillfully rebacked with matching paper). The last complete copy of this edition that we find in auction records was sold in 2003 for $3250 hammer, and it was in a modern leather binding. A very nice copy of one of the most famed of California guide books.
WAGNER CAMP 116:9. COWAN, p.270. ZAMORANO EIGHTY, 41. HOWES H288, "b." MINTZ 215. SABIN 30825 (earlier edition). SMITH 4151. HOWELL 50:112A (this copy). EBERSTADT 113:583. LITTELL SALE 463. HART, COMPANION TO CALIFORNIA, p.179. $6,000
32. Heap, Gwinn Harris: CENTRAL ROUTE TO THE PACIFIC, FROM THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI TO CALIFORNIA: JOURNAL OF THE EXPEDITION OF E.F. BEALE, SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS IN CALIFORNIA, AND GWINN HARRIS HEAP, FROM MISSOURI TO CALIFORNIA, IN 1853. Philadelphia and London. 1854. 136pp., plus 16pp. of ads, and thirteen colored or tinted lithographic plates (including frontispiece). Lacks the folding map, which was not issued with all copies. Half title. Original green blindstamped cloth, expertly rebacked preserving original backstrip, modern printed paper label. Ex-Springfield Public Library, with their perforated stamp in the titlepage, contents leaf, and upper margin of one text leaf, and their blindstamp on the half title, frontispiece, titlepage, and contents leaf. Other than the frontispiece, the plates unstamped and in very nice condition, as is the text. Good plus. Lacks the folding map.
A classic western overland, giving an account of the Beale-Heap expedition from Missouri to California in 1853, which traveled a route that their Congressional patron, Thomas Benton, hoped would be selected for a Pacific railroad. Beale was also charged with finding lands in the west that might be used for the removal of California Indian tribes. Heap's narrative of his overland journey is given in diary form, describing the trek over the Santa Fe Trail from Westport to Bent's Fort in May and June, 1853, and then through New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada to California. They were accompanied by a Delaware Indian, two Mexican guides, and George Simms, an African-American. The text "includes some outstanding descriptions of the Southwest landscape seen about them" (Mintz). The appendix contains Rev. James Brier's account of his pioneering trek across Death Valley in 1849. Heap's party crossed Death Valley as well, and a chapter devoted to that adventure is praised by Edwards as incomparable "in sheer readability and in picturesque descriptive quality."
The lovely illustrations are a highlight of the book. Drawn by Heap, they were lithographed by the Duval firm of Philadelphia and show the party on an Indian-navigated raft across the Green River, as well as notable landscapes including Coochatope Pass, where they crossed the Continental Divide. This copy lacks the folding map, which was not issued with all copies (the Norris copy lacked the map). WAGNER- CAMP 235. COWAN, p.293. HOWES H378, "b." MINTZ 562. RITTENHOUSE 290. SABIN 31175. FLAKE 3934. RAILWAY ECONOMICS, p.283. ENDURING DESERT, pp.110-111. DESERT VOICES, pp.73-74. GRAFF 1837. WHEAT, TRANSMISSISSIPPI WEST IV, pp.196-201. NORRIS CATALOGUE 1606. STREETER SALE 3177. $750
33. [Heartman, Charles F.]: GEORGE D. SMITH G.D.S. 1870-1920. A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO THE GREATEST BOOKSELLER THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN. WRITTEN BY A VERY SMALL ONE. Beauvoir Community, Ms.: The Book Farm, 1945. [2],31pp., plus frontispiece portrait and a full-page plate. Original printed wrappers. Wrappers lightly soiled and worn. Very good.
Limited to 100 copies, produced as a Yuletide Greeting by the roguish bookseller, Charles F. Heartman. Despite his call for a full-size biography of his subject, Heartman's essay is still the best sketch of the life of the George D. Smith, the most dominant bookseller of his era, and agent for the collector Henry Huntington. Smith entered the book business at age thirteen, was monomaniacal in his work, and died too young, at age fifty. The void created by his death was soon filled by A.S.W. Rosenbach. $75
A Civil War Mapmaker Discusses His Work
34. Hergesheimer, Edwin: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM NOTED CIVIL WAR MAPMAKER, EDWIN HERGESHEIMER, TO PHILADELPHIA PUBLISHER, GEORGE W. CHILDS, REGARDING CIVIL WAR MAPS THAT HERGESHEIMER HAS IN PREPARATION]. Washington. January 26, 1864. [2]pp., autograph letter, signed, on a quarto sheet of ruled paper. Tear along lower half of left edge of the sheet. Old folds. Near fine. In a cloth chemise and half morocco and cloth slipcase, spine gilt.
An interesting letter, in which a Civil War mapmaker discusses his maps and describes his methods. In this letter Edwin Hergesheimer writes to Philadelphia publisher, George W. Childs, regarding a map he is drawing of campaigns in northeastern Virginia. His reference to the routes taken by General John Pope and Robert E. Lee suggests that the map showed maneuvers around the Second Battle of Bull Run. The letter provides insight into Hergesheimer's cartographic methods and reasoning.
Hergesheimer writes: "Dear Sir, I send you herewith a sketch of N.E. Virginia &c. showing routes taken by the army of the Potomac, Gen. Pope's army & that of the rebels commanded by Gen. Lee. The Geographical portion of this was completed before I wrote you concerning separate maps for the routes. I think this a little crowded, but can in one more map extending farther to the west & less to the east than this, show all the routes you will probably desire in this section. Should you at any time desire the West Virginia campaigns I have the routes plotted & material ready. I think the enclosed sketch will satisfy you that the suggestion by Mr. Lossing to cut the maps by an east & west line through Fairfax C.[ourt] H.[ouse] was made without having all the routes taken by Gen. Lee & the army of the Potomac before him. You will see that such a line would cut the campaigns in half. I have thought it best to give the whole movements of the army of the Potomac in one continuous line, adding at the bottom of the map the points at which one commander relieved another. The next sketch will show the movements of Johnson, Patterson & McDowell in 1861 & Banks, Fremont, Blenker &c. in 1862, principally located in the Shenandoah valley. Having everything ready for this I will forward it in a few days. Charge for the enclosed $15. P.S. I would like to see a proof of any of these sketches as soon as engraved."
Edwin Hergesheimer produced several maps of the Civil War, as described by Richard Stephenson in his list of Civil War maps in the Library of Congress, including maps of Sherman's 1864 campaign. The maps described in the present letter, however, are not listed in that volume, and it is probable that Hergesheimer was working on these maps at George Childs's commission, for inclusion in Benson Lossing's pictorial history of the Civil War, the first volume of which was eventually published by Childs in 1866. $925
Fascinating Adventures of a Circus Performer, Boxer, and Evangelist
35. Hodge, Elliot, Rev.: A SHORT SKETCH OF MY LIFE. [N.p., but Kansas? n.d., circa 1926]. 51pp. 12mo. Original printed grey wrappers. Rear wrapper soiled, and with some tears. A few text leaves with small, closed marginal tears. Leaf with pp.31-32 torn more severely, but with no loss of text. Good plus.
The story of the eventful life and wanderings of a Kansas evangelist. Elliot Hodge was born at Bluefield, West Virginia in 1885, and before he was twenty had lived in several states, eventually working in coal
mines in Arkansas. Shortly thereafter he joined the Busby Brothers One Ring Circus in Kansas, and worked in other travelling shows in Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. Hodge tells his story with charm and verve, going on to describe two stints in the army and his experiences there as a boxer. In 1919 "God began to call me into the ministry, and I began to lead the prayer meetings" in Kansas, and his ministry led to more interesting experiences, recounted in the second half of the text. Hodge also tells a long story of a squirrel hunting accident that resulted in a self-inflicted shotgun wound that cost him his right arm and led to a subsequent infection that almost took his life. Two different editions are noted in OCLC, a fifty-five page edition dated 1927 printed at Mulberry, Kansas (located in two copies), and the present undated fifty-one page edition. OCLC locates only one copy of the present edition (which we believe to be the earlier of the two editions) at the Fuller Theological Seminary. OCLC 664262854. $150
Important Native American Memoir, Signed by the Author
36. Hopkins, Sarah Winnemucca: LIFE AMONG THE PIUTES: THEIR WRONGS AND CLAIMS. Boston. 1883. 268pp. Small octavo. Original red cloth, spine gilt. Spine lightly sunned, light wear at spine ends. A few small stains on the front and rear boards. Moderate, even tanning. Very good overall.
Signed by the author on the front free endpaper, both as "Sarah Winnemucca" and her native name, "Tho metony Winnemucca." An important history of the Paiute tribe, and a significant memoir by a prominent advocate for Native American rights and the daughter of a Paiute chief. Sarah Winnemucca's book is, in fact, one of the earliest published memoirs by a Native American woman. It is especially valuable as a chronicle of relations between whites and the Paiute of Nevada and California, in its description of native cultural and social practices and tribal leaders, as well as a plea for the restoration of the rights of Native Americans. Individual chapters treat the Pyramid Lake War and the death of Chief Truckee (Sarah's grandfather) and William Ormsby, in whose household she had worked, as well as the Bannock War, during which she worked as a translator for the U.S. Army. The final chapter relates the removal of the Paiute to the Yakima Reservation after the Bannock War. Winnemucca's text was edited by Mrs. Horace Mann, mostly to correct grammar and spelling. "Among the most important 19th century Nevada books" - Paher. PAHER 888. RADER 1927. SMITH 4618. GRAFF 1950. $650
An Observant Englishwoman in the Republic of Texas
37. Houstoun, Matilda C.: TEXAS AND THE GULF OF MEXICO; OR YACHTING IN THE NEW WORLD. London: John Murray, 1844. Two volumes: viii,314; viii,360pp., plus ten plates (including frontispiece in each volume) and 16pp. of advertisements at the end of the second volume. Original blue cloth, stamped in blind on the front and rear boards with a ship and a Greek key border, spines gilt. Spines sunned. Bookplate of Sir Norman Lamont, Baronet of Knockdow on front pastedown of both volumes. Bindings slightly cocked. A few light fox marks, but very clean internally. Very good.
"Exceptional insights into Texas of the 1840's" - Jenkins. Matilda Houstoun and her husband, a captain in the 10th Hussars, sailed their yacht, the Dolphin from England, stopping at the Azores, Barbados, Jamaica, and New Orleans before entering Galveston harbor in December, 1842. Except for a brief visit back to New Orleans they remained in Texas until the end of the following March. Mrs. Houston was a perceptive and objective observer, and her account provides a significant look at Texas during the Republic period, with observations on social life, recent history, the Texas Navy, the productions of the land, climate and the danger of hurricanes, hunting, etc. She also foresaw an intra-coastal canal and railroads, and a possible Civil War over slavery. The excellent illustrations are by the firm of Day & Haghe, lithographers to the Queen, and include a view of Galveston from the harbor, their yacht in the Mississippi River, the city of Houston surrounded by mountains, and portraits of Santa Anna and Sam Houston. Two other illustrations show a "New Orleans black dandy" and "Nancy," a black woman, while others show the harbor of Havana, the city's Plaza de Armas and Viceroy's Palace, as well as the port of
Funchal, Madeira. "A pleasant and quite readable account of life at Galveston, with an excursion to the 'up country,' of a wealthy English couple..." - Streeter. We would note that Mrs. Houston misdates the dates of her visit as 1843-44, an error followed by most bibliographers though corrected by Jenkins. BASIC TEXAS BOOKS 97. RAINES, p.120. STREETER TEXAS, 1506. RADER 1949 (note). CLARK III:182. HOWES H693, "aa." SABIN 33202. $3,000
Early History of Santa Barbara
38. Huse, Charles E.: SKETCH OF THE HISTORY AND RESOURCES OF SANTA BARBARA CITY AND COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. Santa Barbara: Office of the Daily Press, 1876. [1],49,[1]pp., including two pages of advertisements. Original printed wrappers. Light stains along the edges of the front wrapper, spine paper chipped, else near fine.
First and only edition of this early description of Santa Barbara by a longtime resident. Charles Huse was born in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard in 1848, departing for California and the Gold Rush the following year. A lawyer, he settled in Santa Barbara in 1852, became District Attorney two years later, and also served as a judge. A tireless advocate for his adopted town, he prepared this sketch of Santa Barbara's history as a Fourth of July oration in America's centennial year. This work goes far beyond the usual celebratory boosterism of such an event, and instead gives a detailed history of Santa Barbara, from Cabrillo's discovery in 1542 all the way to 1876, with discussions of the area's native history, oil and gold wealth, mission and church history, early Anglo settlers, civic development, climate, agriculture, and more. The advertisement facing the titlepage is printed on yellow paper and is for Santa Barbara's Arlington Hotel (with a view of the building), while the terminal ad is for the SANTA BARBARA PRESS and for W.E. Barnard, realtor and auctioneer. OCLC and Rocq together locate seventeen copies, but in our experience this title is rather scarce in commerce. The present copy is the only one that we find in the market since the Streeter copy sold in 1968. KRUSKA & ROBINSON 43. COWAN (1964 ADDITIONS) 268. ROCQ 13508. HOWES H838. STREETER SALE 2957. OCLC 11809864. $1,350
39. Huson, Hobart: . DISTRICT JUDGES OF REFUGIO COUNTY. Refugio, Tx.: Refugio Timely Remarks, 1941. [2],115,[1]pp. Half title. Small octavo. Original red cloth, front board and spine gilt. Spine faded. Quite clean and fresh internally. Near fine.
"Special limited edition for Subscribers to Judges' Portrait Fund," signed by Huson on the titlepage. An important and little-known history of law and jurisprudence in this Texas Gulf Coast county. Huson, a respected authority on local history, writes that the object of his book was to raise funds to create portraits of the judges of Refugio County, but what he produced is more than just a series of biographical sketches. He provides the biographies, but also gives a significant legal history of the area, including a timeline of the evolution of the judicial system, a description of relations with the Mexican government in the years following the Texas Revolution, and chapters on the Taylor-Sutton feud and the 1874 murder of rancher Thad Swift and his wife. Not in Adams, SIX-GUNS, who does note Huson's later history of Refugio County. $900
Important Firsthand Account of the Bear Flag Revolt
40. Ide, William Brown: WHO CONQUERED CALIFORNIA? READ THE FOLLOWING PAGES, AND THEN YOU WILL KNOW: FOR THEY CONTAIN THE MOST PARTICULAR, THE MOST AUTHENTIC, AND THE MOST RELIABLE HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA, IN JUNE, 1846, BY THE "BEAR FLAG PARTY." EVER BEFORE PUBLISHED. Claremont, N.H.: Printed and published by Simeon Ide, [1880]. 137pp. 16mo. Original half red cloth and printed paper
boards. Small sticker removed from upper inner corner of front board, bookplate removed from front pastedown. Shelfworn, lightly soiled. Two leaves loosening, else very neat and clean internally. Very good.
A basic source for the history of the Bear Flag Revolt in California, told by one of its leaders. William B. Ide (1796-1852) is a rather remarkable figure in California history: for a brief time he was the first (and only) President of the independent Republic of California. That honor came from his participation in the Bear Flag Revolt, in which several American citizens in northern California toppled the government of Mariano Vallejo in June, 1846, and proclaimed an independent republic. The onset of the Mexican- American War and the American occupation of Monterey (and eventually of California itself) in early July limited the reign of the Bear Flaggers to barely a month. William Ide was one of the political leaders of the "republic" and his account gives important details of the convulsive state of affairs in California as control moved from Mexico to the United States. The opportunistic John Fremont quickly insinuated himself into the Bear Flag events, and Ide is critical of Fremont's motivations and involvement. At the same time, Ide has received justifiable criticism for over-emphasizing his own role in the affair.
Simeon Ide, age eighty-six, edited this work and printed it himself on a handpress in a small edition "for free distribution", such was his determination to tell the story of the Bear Flag Revolt, and his brother's pivotal role in it. Some references note an additional 8 to 10-page section, not found in this copy and apparently never bound in, perhaps indicating that this is an early issue. This text is sometimes found bound with Simeon Ide's BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WILLIAM B. IDE, also issued in 1880. COWAN, p.301. ROCQ 14962. HOWES I5, "b." GARRETT, p.223. TUTOROW 3467. STREETER SALE 2993. $3,250
Rare Treaty with Oregon Indians
41. [Indian Treaty - Paiute Tribe]: TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE WOLL-PAH-PE TRIBE OF SNAKE INDIANS.... [wrapper title]. [Washington. 1866]. 6,[2]pp. Folio. Original printed self-wrappers. Fine. In a cloth chemise and half morocco and cloth slipcase, spine gilt.
The only treaty concluded between the United States and the Walpapi, a Paiute tribe also called "Snake." The treaty was made at Sprague River Valley in Oregon, and the American commissioner was J.W. Perit Huntington. "Cedes a large portion of John Day's River country, mainly Grant County. Lindsay Applegate and various officers of the Oregon Volunteer Cavalry are witnesses" - Eberstadt. The tribe also agreed to release any white or Indian prisoners, to cease hostilities with Oregon settlers, and to induce other local tribes to make peace with the United States. The treaty was concluded August 12, 1865, ratified by the Senate on July 5, 1866, and proclaimed by President Andrew Johnson on July 10, 1866. Printed in a small number for official use. OCLC locates ten copies. EBERSTADT INDIAN TREATIES 132. GOODSPEED'S 312:77. OCLC 21574252. $600
Scarce Firsthand Accounts of the Indian Wars of the West
42. [Indian Wars]: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING AND DINNER OF THE ORDER OF INDIAN WARS OF THE UNITED STATES. HELD...JANUARY 19, 1928. [Washington]. 1928. [2],46pp. Original printed wrappers. Wrappers lightly worn. Near fine.
Chartered in 1896 and still active today, the Order of Indian Wars of the United States was founded to "perpetuate the memories of the services rendered by the military forces of the United States in their conflicts and wars against hostile Indians within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States, and to collect and secure for publication historical data relating to the instances of heroic service and personal
devotion by which Indian warfare has been illustrated" (from their constitution). The proceedings of their annual meetings give the names of the members, mark the passing of the recently deceased, and record the official business conducted, but they are most interesting for printing recollections of nineteenth- century Indian warfare, often being the only publication of these memoirs. This record of the 1928 meeting and dinner includes the memoirs of Gen. William H. Bisbee, his service at Fort Kearny, meetings with the Sioux at Fort Laramie, and his views on the Fetterman massacre, during which Bisbee's forces were in close proximity. Also included is S.W. Fountain's account of his fights with the Apache in December, 1885, and "The Experience of Major Mauck in Disarming a Band of Cheyennes on the North Fork of the Canadian River in 1878." Important firsthand reports of Indian fighting on the frontier. $125
43. [Indian Wars]: [Geronimo]: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING AND DINNER OF THE ORDER OF INDIAN WARS OF THE UNITED STATES. HELD...JANUARY 26, 1929. [Washington]. 1929. 71pp. Original printed wrappers. Wrappers lightly worn, else fine.
This record of the 1929 meeting includes several important memoirs of the hunt for Geronimo, including the recollections of Brigadier General James Parker, Lt. Charles Gatewood's account of Geronimo's surrender, and "Some Unwritten Incidents of the Geronimo Campaign," by Lt. Thomas Clay. A highly significant group of memoirs of the campaign to capture Geronimo. $175
Three Issues of an Internment Camp Newspaper from Arkansas
44. [Japanese Internment]: THE ROHWER OUTPOST. Rohwer, Ar. January 20, May 8, and May 22, 1943. Three issues from volume 2 (numbers 6, 37 & 41): the first 4pp., the latter two 10pp. each, for a total of 24pp. Folio. The latter two issues stapled in the upper left corner, the first issue with staple lacking, leaves loose. First issue with a small closed tear in the lower margin of the first leaf, not costing any text; second issue with soiling on the first leaf. Very good overall.
Three issues of a Japanese internment camp newspaper, from the Rohwer Relocation Center in eastern Arkansas. The Rohwer camp was located in Desha County, in southeast Arkansas, and along with nearby Camp Jerome it was the furthest east of the Japanese internment camps. THE ROHWER OUTPOST debuted on October 24, 1942, and was issued twice a week, lasting to late 1945. The issues in this group are all from volume 2: numbers 6, 37, and 41. It appears that each issue consisted of six pages of English- language text, and four pages of text in Japanese. The second and third issues of this group are complete, with the full complement of Japanese and English text, whereas the first issue has only the first four English-language pages. Each issue carries a variety of news of happenings in the camp, including distribution of clothing allowances, birth and death notices, art exhibits, religious services, notices of job openings on nearby military bases, sports news, and brief reports from other internment camps. The earliest issue in this group contains a report on a survey of American public opinion on the issue of relocation and internment, and the third issue contains an Associated Press story on a Supreme Court action regarding the voting rights of Nisei. OCLC lists a number of institutions with holdings of scattered issues of THE ROHWER OUTPOST, but issues of this newspaper are scarce in the market. The only record that we can find of any at auction is an offering of these same three issues (these same copies), offered in 2008. $600
Rare Guide to the Hot Springs of South Dakota
45. Jones, J.W.: JONES' GUIDE TO THE HOT SPRINGS OF THE BLACK HILLS. THE GREAT HEALTH AND PLEASURE RESORT OF THE NORTHWEST. A DESCRIPTIVE REVIEW OF THE CURATIVE PROPERTIES, SCENIC BEAUTIES, HOTELS, ETC. Hot Springs, [S.D.]: Minnekahta Herald Print, 1891. 24,[12]pp., including illustrations. 12mo. Original pictorial wrappers. Ex-library, with
ink number on front wrapper, and blindstamp and inkstamp on titlepage (a duplicate deaccessioned from the South Dakota State Historical Society). Very clean internally. Very good overall. In a folding cloth box, gilt leather spine label.
The only edition of J.W. Jones's rare guide to the hot springs of South Dakota. The late nineteenth century saw a boom in the development of baths in the area, capitalizing on the unusually warm and mineral-rich waters around the town of Hot Springs. The text includes a brief history of the area, testimonials to the qualities of the waters, descriptions of the town and the various bathing sites, and information on how to get there. Following the main text are a dozen pages of advertisements for businesses in the small town, and there are ads on the wrappers as well. OCLC locates two copies, at the South Dakota State Archives, and at Yale. Rare. JENNEWEIN 227. OCLC 9625291, 54254752. $850
Early Photographs of Yosemite and the High Sierra
46. [Le Conte, Joseph]: A JOURNAL OF RAMBLINGS THROUGH THE HIGH SIERRAS OF CALIFORNIA BY THE "UNIVERSITY EXCURSION PARTY.". San Francisco: Francis & Valentine, 1875. 103pp., plus nine mounted albumen photographs (including frontispiece), each with a caption printed in red and mounted within red borders. Original blue cloth, stamped in blind and gilt. Contemporary ownership signature (see below) on front free endpaper. Cloth lightly rubbed, worn at corners and spine ends. Very clean internally, and the photographs in fine, bright condition. Near fine overall.
A cornerstone Yosemite book, and a highly significant nineteenth-century book illustrated with original photographs. It records an early expedition to Yosemite and the High Sierras, and is one of the earliest photographically-illustrated books on the subject.
This is a record of an 1870 expedition to Yosemite led by Professor Joseph Le Conte of the University of California. Le Conte, a student of Louis Agassiz, was one of the earliest professors at the new University of California, and a highly respected geologist. In the summer of 1870 he joined Prof. Frank Soule, Jr., and a group of eight students from the university on a six week trip to Yosemite and the High Sierra. The text is written in diary format in the first-person, and describes the adventure in detail. The group visited James Hutchings's hotel and met John Muir, who was then working at Hutchings's sawmill. Muir accompanied the group to Lake Tenaya, Tuolumne Meadows, Mount Dana, over Tioga Pass and down to Mono Lake. Le Conte later described the trip as the most delightful adventure of his life, and he recounts it in the text in an engaging manner, describing the natural beauty and geographic significance of the region.
The photographs are very handsomely composed and printed images of Yosemite and the High Sierra. Farquahar speculates that the photographs "must have been procured from one or more of the professional photographers who operated in Yosemite Valley." The source of the photographs was likely J.J. Reilly, a professional photographer active in the Yosemite Valley at the time. The photographs, in the order in which they appear in the book, are:
1) "Great Yosemite Fall. 2,634 feet high." This image features and identifies the ten members of the excursion party. 2) "The Grizzly Giant. 110 feet in circumference, 33 feet in diameter." 3) "The High Sierras. From Glacier Point. Nevada Fall, 700 feet high. Vernal Fall, 350 feet high." 4) "The Gates of the Valley. From Inspiration Point. El Capitan, 3300 feet high. The Three Graces. Bridal Veil Fall." 5) "Bridal Veil Fall. 940 feet high." 6) "The Heart of the Sierras. Lake Tenaya." 7) "Day-Dawn in Yosemite. The Merced River." 8) "North Dome, 3,725 feet high. South (Half) Dome, 6,000 feet high." 9) "Montgomery St., San Francisco. Where our trip ended." This photograph features the studio of San Francisco photographers, Bradley and Rulofson.
Robert Cowan, in the first edition of his California bibliography, helped perpetuate the belief that "but 20 copies were printed" (this assertion is absent from Cowan's second edition). However, it seems more likely that about 120 copies were printed, twelve for each member of the excursion party, as suggested by Le Conte's son (see Farquhar).
This copy bears the contemporary ownership signature of A.S. Hubbard of San Francisco on the front free endpaper. This is almost certainly Adolphus S. Hubbard, who is noted in San Francisco directories of the 1870s as an express agent. Hubbard (1838-1913) was born in Illinois and served in the Civil War, after which he came to California. He was secretary of the California Historical Society, a founder of the California Genealogical Society, and very active in the Sons of the American Revolution, and as a Mason.
A very nice copy of an outstanding photographically-illustrated book on Yosemite and the High Sierra.
FARQUHAR 14a. CURREY & KRUSKA 230. KURUTZ, CALIFORNIA BOOKS ILLUSTRATED WITH ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS, p.16, and item 27. COWAN (1914), p.137. ROCQ 16596. ZAMORANO SELECT 64. HOWES L175, "aa." EBERSTADT 124:38. $10,750
“First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of His Countrymen”
47. Lee, Henry: FUNERAL ORATION ON THE DEATH OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. DELIVERED, AT THE REQUEST OF CONGRESS [wrapper title]. Boston: Printed for Joseph Nancrede and Manning & Loring. Sold by them respectively, [1800]. 15pp. Original printed front wrapper, 1 1/2-inch wide portion of rear wrapper remains, affixed to blank verso of final leaf. Three-inch by one-inch tear in foredge of front wrapper, not affecting text but touching a portion of the printed border. Ex-John Carter Brown Library (properly deaccessioned) with their small stamp on rear wrapper. Old ownership inscription on front wrapper. A bit of light foxing. Good.
Scarce Boston printing of the most famous of the many eulogies delivered after Washington's death in December, 1799. This official eulogy, delivered in Philadelphia at the request of Congress, was given by Major-General Henry Lee, a member of Washington's command during the Revolution. It is in this address that Lee coined the phrase that Washington was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Lee's eulogy was delivered before both houses of Congress in Philadelphia on December 26, 1799, and he recounts Washington's services during the French & Indian War and the Revolution, and as President, as well as praising his character and intellect. The significance of Lee's oration was recognized in its time - it was printed in several editions in 1800, in the United States and England. It stands as an important milestone in shaping the image of George Washington in the popular mind. STILLWELL, WASHINGTON EULOGIES 134. EVANS 37804. ESTC W20355. SABIN 39747. $675
Remarkable Memoir of Life in the Texas Rangers
48. Lee, Nelson: THREE YEARS AMONG THE CAMANCHES, THE NARRATIVE OF NELSON LEE, THE TEXAN RANGER, CONTAINING A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF HIS CAPTIVITY AMONG THE INDIANS, HIS SINGULAR ESCAPE THROUGH THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF HIS WATCH, AND FULLY ILLUSTRATING INDIAN LIFE AS IT IS ON THE WAR PATH AND IN THE CAMP. Albany. 1859. [ii],224pp. Portrait. 12mo. Original cloth, stamped in gilt and blind. Spine lightly sunned. Two small, unobtrusive contemporary ownership stamps on front free endpaper. Closed vertical tear to page 21-22, extending from the bottom edge into five lines of text, with no loss. A very good copy. In a blue half leather slipcase and chemise.
"Lee was a member of the Texas Navy, which he left to join the Rangers; he went through and describes the early Mexican-Texas border wars...the Santa Fe Expedition...the Mier Expedition...the Battles of Monterey, Palo Alto, etc. At the conclusion of the War, he started overland for California...but had only been out a few days when the party was surrounded by savages and all but the author and three others summarily butchered. His experiences in captivity are of vivid interest, and afford a most minute and detailed account of the manners and customs of the tribe. He gives also an account of the hardships and sufferings of his co-captives, Mrs. Haskins and her two daughters, including the torture of the former" - Eberstadt. "The appalling and monstrous cruelties of this untamable [Comanche] nation of nomads, reconciles us somewhat to their rapid extinction. Unlike the savages of the Algonquin and Iroquois races, who invariably respected the chastity of their female prisoners, the savages of the southern plains ravish and torture them, with the combined fury of lust and bloodthirst" - Field. "The best contemporary description of the life of the early Texas Rangers" - Jenkins.
In the introduction to the 1957 reprint of Lee's narrative, Walter Prescott Webb writes: "The story he tells is absorbing, but the information he conveys about how the Comanches lived before they were affected by the white man is invaluable." A rare book, central to any collection relating to overland travel and Indian captivities, here in the original binding. WAGNER-CAMP 333:1. STREETER SALE 401. FIELD 905. HOWES L212, "b." DOBIE, p.34. SABIN 39778. RADER 2215. AYER 182. EBERSTADT 122:227. BASIC TEXAS BOOKS 123. GARRETT, p. 227. SIEBERT SALE 993. GRAFF 2444. JONES 1414. $8,500
The Conquest of California, the Gold Rush, and More
49. [Lynch, James]: WITH STEVENSON TO CALIFORNIA 1846 [half title]. [N.p. 1896?]. 65pp. 12mo. Original green cloth, front board gilt. Fine, untrimmed.
Privately printed in an edition of 100 copies. The preface is signed in type by Lynch at Tierra Redonda, San Luis Obispo County, July, 1896. A scarce, first-hand account of the conquest of California in 1846, and the establishment of American control there. Eager to participate in the Mexican-American War, Lynch joined Jonathan Stevenson's New York Regiment in 1846 and sailed with them to California that September. Lynch describes the voyage around Cape Horn aboard Stevenson's flagship, the Perkins, arrival at Yerba Buena in early March, 1847, and their activities in securing American control of California. Lynch continues his story beyond the war, describing the state of affairs in California after the gold discovery, his trip to Coloma (site of Marshall's discovery) and then to the mining camp at Murphys, the rough state of things in the gold region and the actions of vigilantes in San Francisco and elsewhere. Of San Francisco, he describes it as a place ruled by "dishonorable" politicians, where "the scum of all creation had gathered." In all, Lynch provides a very interesting eyewitness account of an exciting and tumultuous period in California history, with insightful descriptions of the personalities involved. "Many valuable vignettes...emphasizes the activities of the men in California" - Tutorow. GARRETT, p.233. TUTOROW 3472. COWAN, p.401. HOWES L583. HILL 1050. ROCQ 16997. STREETER SALE 3022. NORRIS CATALOGUE 2259. GRAFF 2564. HOWELL 50:614. $875
Rare Complete Run of a Little-Known Socialist Periodical, Published by a Famed Physical Culture Icon
50. Macfadden, Bernarr: THE CRY FOR JUSTICE [continued as:] FAIR PLAY. VOLUME 1. NO. 1- 26; VOL. 2. NO. 1 [all published]. New York: Bernarr Macfadden, November 8, 1902 - May 9, 1903. Twenty-seven total issues, the entire run of the journal. First five issues in quarto and each 16pp. in length; remainder are octavo and 32pp. in length. Illustrations. Pictorial wrappers, stapled. Front and rear wrapper of first issue detached, but present. Some wear to the first five issues, along the spine and the center horizontal fold. Very good condition overall.
A complete run of this rare socialist and free thought periodical, created, edited, and published by the maverick publisher and physical culture icon, Bernarr Macfadden (1868-1955). Appearing just three years after the inaugural issue of PHYSICAL CULTURE, Macfadden's much better-known and long-running journal, THE CRY FOR JUSTICE shows the interest of the thirty-four year old Macfadden in social issues beyond physical health and wellness, and a leftist/socialist political philosophy at odds with his later conservative views.
Published weekly, the first issue of THE CRY FOR JUSTICE appeared on November 8, 1902, and the final issue (volume 2, number 1) on May 9, 1903. The name of the journal was changed to FAIR PLAY with issue fifteen. This collection includes the entire run of Macfadden's journal, twenty-seven issues in all. Despite the fact that Macfadden created a media empire and was one of the major American periodical publishers of the first half of the twentieth century, THE CRY FOR JUSTICE is little-known and even less-studied. It was essentially unknown to Macfadden's three recent biographers. It is not mentioned at all by Robert Ernst and William Hunt, and Ernst goes so far as to assert that "as a young man, and even in middle age, Macfadden had no interest in politics." Mark Adams may be overstating the case, but at least acknowledges Macfadden's active progressive impulses when he writes that "no voice in the progressive choir sang louder for the improvement of the American people than Bernarr Macfadden's." Adams, however, mentions THE CRY FOR JUSTICE/FAIR PLAY in only one paragraph of a nearly 300-page biography.
The publisher's statement in the first issue announces that "it is our intention to wage relentless war upon injustice of all kinds," and the magazine called itself "a weekly journal devoted to New Thought." Macfadden decries "the greed, coercion, cruelty, avarice, bribery and extortion that is everywhere seen in this so-called civilized age," and singles out politicians and capitalists specifically. Other articles attack trusts, exhort workers to unionize, demand equal rights for all, advocate the single tax, and call for government control of utilities. Macfadden himself was responsible for much of the editorial content, though other articles are signed by contributors such as Herbert Casson, Kate Richards O'Hare, and Lizzie M. Holmes, and a work of fiction was included in each issue, often with illustrations by Gilman Low. An occasional feature called "Interviews with the Rank and File" profiled coal miners, washerwomen, carpenters, streetcar drivers, stenographers, plumbers, and other laborers.
Any individual issue of THE CRY FOR JUSTICE / FAIR PLAY is scarce; to find an entire run is rare indeed. Not in Mott, who lists only Macfadden's PHYSICAL CULTURE, nor in Lomazow. The only location in the UNION LIST OF SERIALS is a complete run at the Library of Congress. Beyond that, we find only two listings in OCLC, at the Univ. of Wisconsin (volume 1, numbers 6-26, and volume 2, number 1), and at the Univ. of North Carolina (volume 1, number 10 and volume 2, number 1 only). There is also a single issue (volume 1, number 20) at the Wolfsonian at Florida International University. Rare, little-known, and very interesting.
UNION LIST OF SERIALS, p.1521. OCLC 298345070, 298345063. Mark Adams, MR. AMERICA, (New York. 2009), p.59. Robert Ernst, WEAKNESS IS A CRIME: THE LIFE OF BERNARR MACFADDEN, (Syracuse, N.Y. 1991), p.120. William R. Hunt, BODY LOVE: THE AMAZING CAREER OF BERNARR MACFADDEN, (Bowling Green, Oh. 1989). $2,750
He Witnessed the Killing of Billy the Kid
51. Maxwell, Peter: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM PETER MAXWELL, A NEW MEXICO RANCHER AND ASSOCIATE OF BILLY THE KID, WHO WAS PRESENT WHEN THE KID WAS KILLED BY PAT GARRETT]. Fort Sumner, New Mexico. March 25, 1881. [1]p. autograph letter, signed, on quarto sheet, ruled in blue. Old folds. A few small splits along the folds. Slightly smudged ink on Maxwell's first name in the signature. Near fine.
Autograph letter, signed, by the New Mexico ranching figure, Peter Maxwell, an associate of both Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett. It was in Peter Maxwell's bedroom at Fort Sumner (from where this letter was sent) that Garrett killed Billy the Kid as Peter Maxwell looked on, the only eyewitness to the event. This letter was written by Maxwell on March 25, 1881, less than four months before the killing. Maxwell writes the highly successful firm of Browne & Manzanares in Las Vegas, New Mexico, who worked for him as commission agents. The letter accompanied some documents of Maxwell's "which you requested me to return to you" (those documents no longer present). Peter Maxwell (1848-1898) took over the vast land holdings and cattle empire of his father, Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell, when the latter died in 1875. A nice example of the signature of the man who witnessed one of the most famous events in the history of the Old West. $750
The Crowning Infamy of the Ages
52. Mercer, A.S.: THE BANDITTI OF THE PLAINS OR THE CATTLEMEN'S INVASION OF WYOMING IN 1892. [THE CROWNING INFAMY OF THE AGES]. [Denver. 1894]. 139pp., including illustrations and a map, preceded by a single page with information for ordering copies of the book and seven blank leaves. Contemporary wrappers comprised of coated white printer's waste paper (see below). Rear wrapper soiled and neatly repaired. Final few leaves with some minor marginal staining and a few
short repaired tears. Very good. Untrimmed and largely unopened. In a half morocco and cloth folding case, spine gilt.
An attractive, tall copy of this landmark work on cattle raising and vigilante justice in late nineteenth century Wyoming. "One of the most famous range books" - Reese.
Asa Shinn Mercer came to Wyoming from Seattle, where he had been president of the University of Washington. He was hired by powerful cattlemen to edit the NORTHWESTERN LIVESTOCK JOURNAL, the official organ of the Wyoming Stock Growers' Association. The members of the WSGA were growing increasingly angry at the actions of small stock growers, who were violating laws regarding grazing and mavericks, and eventually brought in hired guns to confront the smaller stockmen. Mercer grew to take the side of the independent interests, and published this scathing expose of the Wyoming Stock Growers' Association and its actions in the Johnson County War of 1892. Mercer's print shop was burned and he was ordered to leave the state, and it is believed that many copies were destroyed by members of the Stock Growers' Association and their sympathizers.
Ramon Adams, a stickler for accuracy in historical works on the cattle trade and western outlaws, did his part to add to the mythology of Mercer's book, writing (in THE RAMPAGING HERD) that "this book has a tempestuous history. Although purporting to have been copyrighted in 1894, this book was never published, but printed. Immediately after it made its appearance in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the entire issue was impounded by a local court in the course of a libel suit and ordered to be destroyed. While the edition was in custody of the court, a number of copies were stolen and smuggled to Denver, which city lay outside the court's jurisdiction. It is claimed that the books were unbound at the time and later bound in Denver." Reese doubts that so many copies were destroyed, and believes (based on the assertion of Mercer's children) that the book was printed in Denver, not Cheyenne. With regard to the binding of the book, Reese writes that "there are two binding states, black pebbled cloth and glossy white wrappers. [Fred] Rosenstock believes the latter to be the first state, but I do not think any priority of issue can be established. Indeed, copies have been seen with the glossy wrappers bound inside the black pebbled cloth, and given the nature of the book, it is probable all were done simultaneously." This copy is bound in contemporary coated white printer's waste paper from a copy of THE BOOK OF THE CAMPAIGN OF EDUCATION, printed in Denver in 1894.
A handsome copy of an important book in the history of western cattle-raising and the open range, frontier justice, and the struggle of small ranchers against moneyed interests. ADAMS, HERD 1474, "exceedingly rare." ADAMS, SIX-GUNS 1478. SIX SCORE 79. HOWES M522, "b." GRAFF 2750. STREETER SALE 2385. DOBIE, p. 111. SMITH, PACIFIC N’WEST AMERICANA 6735. $5,250
Songs to Celebrate Victory in the Mexican-American War, with Illustrations
53. [Mexican-American War]: [Taylor, Zachary]: THE ROUGH AND READY SONGSTER: EMBELLISHED WITH TWENTY-FIVE SPLENDID ENGRAVINGS, ILLUSTRATIVE OF AMERICAN VICTORIES IN MEXICO. By an American Officer. New York: Nafis & Cornish, and St. Louis: Nafis, Cornish & Co., [1848]. 250, vi pp., including twenty-five engravings (ten of them full-page, including frontispiece portrait), titlepage vignette, and tail pieces. Original black roan, gilt pictorial backstrip. Boards worn around the edges, chipped at lower front joint, front joint leather cracked. Scattered foxing. Withal, about very good.
An attractive little volume of songs produced to celebrate American victories in the Mexican-American War, and to bolster Gen. Zachary Taylor's (ultimately successful) bid for the Presidency in 1848. Included are the lyrics, without music, to scores of songs, including celebrations of American victories at Veracruz, Monterey, Puebla, Buena Vista, and the capture of Mexico City. The engravings show several of these crucial battles and the frontispiece is a portrait of Taylor himself. There are songs in memory of other
famous American military heroes, such as Washington, Jackson, and John Paul Jones, as well as lyrics celebrating ordinary soldiers from Ohio, Connecticut, Kentucky, and elsewhere. Other songs commemorate victories during the Revolution and the War of 1812, and several songs laud Texas, including the battle of the Alamo, the death of Crockett, "song of the Texian Ranger," "Texas War Cry," and more. Though well-represented institutionally, this little songbook is rather scarce in the market. GARRETT, p.278. SABIN 73463. $1,250
The Military-Industrial Complex, Nineteenth Century Style
54. Miles, Nelson A., Gen.: NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. ITS CHARACTER AND IMPORTANCE TO THE GOVERNMENT. Fort Keogh, Mt. March 6, 1880. 4pp., printed on a folded quarto sheet. A few small chips in the foredge, neat split in upper portion of the central fold. Very good.
The military-industrial complex, nineteenth century style. This letter from General Nelson Miles, commanding the District of the Yellowstone, describes the importance of the Northern Pacific to the development of the northern Plains and touts its utility to military operations. Miles' letter was originally written to the chairmen of the House and Senate committees on railroads, but he saw to it that the Northern Pacific itself received a copy of the letter, and this document was likely printed by the railroad itself. Miles argues for the extension of time of the land grant to enable completion of the line, writing that the railroad has increased settlement in the remote northern Plains, brings communications to the Black Hills mining region, and "opens the finest wheat producing country on the continent." And, of course, "the advantages of a railroad would be inestimable to the Government," enabling more rapid military responses against hostile Indians in the region, and more efficient transport of troops, military supplies and stores, and building material. Not in RAILWAY ECONOMICS. OCLC locates three copies, at Yale, Stanford, and the Minnesota Historical Society. Rare. OCLC 702664908, 4810850. $575
55. Morgan, Dale, (editor): OVERLAND IN 1846 DIARIES AND LETTERS OF THE CALIFORNIA- OREGON TRAIL. Georgetown, Ca.: The Talisman Press, 1963. Two volumes: 457; [5],[458]-825,[1]pp., including illustrations, plus four maps on two sheets (in a pocket in the rear of the first volume) and a folding map (bound in at rear of second volume). Original half cloth and pictorial paper-covered boards. Fine in near fine (spines slightly darkened) dustjackets.
From an edition of 1000 sets. A highly significant collection of narratives of the overland trail in 1846, and the best single source of primary accounts of the start of the great westward migration to California and Oregon. Compiled from diaries and letters of the emigrants, and with an excellent introduction by editor Dale Morgan. The first volume contains nine diaries printed in their entirety, including two relating to the Donner Party. The two maps in the pocket of the first volume reproduce the four sheets of T.H. Jefferson's map showing the route from Independence, Missouri to California. The second volume consists of scores of letters from the West, as well as contemporary newspaper accounts. "An important overland work of the first magnitude" - Mintz. "A very significant contribution to the history of western America" - Paher. ZAMORANO SELECT 84. MINTZ 336. PAHER 1333. $125
The Reorganized Mormon Church Renounces Polygamy
56. [Mormons]: [Polygamy]: MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS FROM A COMMITTEE OF THE REORGANIZED CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS, ON THE CLAIMS AND FAITH OF THE CHURCH [caption title]. Plano, Il.: Printed at True Latter Day Saints' Herald Steam Book Office, [1870]. 8pp., printed on two folio leaves. Original self-wrappers. A few light fox marks. Very good. Untrimmed.
Internecine Mormon squabbling over the issue of polygamy and who was the legitimate successor of Joseph Smith. This memorial to the U.S. Congress from the Reorganized Church announces their opposition to polygamy and asks that they be recognized as THE Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Utah church's refusal to disavow polygamy put them in longstanding disfavor with the federal government, and delayed statehood for Utah for another twenty-five years. Signed in type on the final page by Joseph Smith III and other leaders of the Reorganized Church, which was founded in 1860 by the eldest son of the founding prophet, and regarded itself as the embodiment and continuation of the original faith. FLAKE 6952. SABIN 50746. GRAFF 3465. $650
Scarce Account of Midwestern Outlaws
57. Murphy, J.W.: OUTLAWS OF THE FOX RIVER COUNTRY, STORY OF THE WHITEFORD AND SPENCER TRAGEDIES, THE ASSASSINATION OF JUDGE RICHARDSON, THE EXECUTION OF JOHN BAIRD, AND THE MOBBING OF W.J. YOUNG. Hannibal, Mo. 1882. 138pp., plus six inserted plates. Modern three quarter calf and marbled boards, spine gilt. Titlepage wrinkled, a bit stained, reinforced along the gutter, and with a few short tears, expertly repaired. Final blank leaf creased, with a few short repaired tears. Occasional minor foxing, with marginal stains to a few leaves. Overall, about very good.
A scarce account of criminal acts in Missouri, Iowa, and Ohio in the 1860s and '70s, with views of the scenes of the crimes and portraits of the participants. Murphy begins by recounting the fate of Joseph and Hyrum Smith at Nauvoo, moves on to some of the same crimes described by Edward Bonney in BANDITTI OF THE PRAIRIES, and then brings the story of midwestern crime up to the Civil War and beyond. Crimes, captures, and trials are all described in a gripping manner, enhanced by illustrations of crime scenes and perpetrators. "Lurid narrative of midwestern crime, comparable to Bonney's classic BANDITTI OF THE PRAIRIES" - Howes. "History of the outlaws of the Nauvoo country....The author, an Alexandria, Missouri, editor, was personally acquainted with many of the desperate characters in this chronicle" - Adams. HOWES M907, "aa." ADAMS, SIX-GUNS 1581. GRAFF 2935. FLAKE 5673. $2,500
Broadside Supporting the Kellogg-Briand Pact
58. [National Council for Prevention of War] [Kellogg-Briand Pact]: GENERAL PACT FOR THE RENUNCIATION OF WAR SIGNED AT PARIS, AUGUST 27, 1928 [caption title]. Washington: National Council for Prevention of War, [1928]. Broadside, 44 x 26 1/2 inches, printed in red and blue. Old folds. A few small closed tears in the margins (unmended). Very good.
A scarce broadside issued by the National Council for Prevention of War, a pacifist organization, to celebrate and encourage adherence to the Kellogg-Briand Pact. This is the larger format version of the broadside - we know of another version measuring 18 x 11 inches. The pact, signed by fifteen nations including the United States, France, Germany, and Great Britain, and outlawed war as an instrument of national policy and vowed to use pacific means to settle disputes. Eventually, the signatory list grew to more than sixty nations. Japan and Germany were quick to break the pact within a few years. This poster prints the preamble and first two articles of the Pact, and was meant for distribution in American post offices and schools (see Frederick J. Libby, TO END WAR: THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR PREVENTION OF WAR, pp.60-64). Our copy of this poster differs from the one illustrated in Libby's book, as ours lacks the "proclaimed" text line with the date of 1929, indicating that this is an early form of this poster. A desirable diplomatic history broadside. $450
Promoting a Nebraska Town That Was Never Built
59. [Nebraska]: CIRCULAR OF THE UNION SETTLEMENT COMPANY, OTOE CITY, NEBRASKA [caption title]. Hartford: Calhoun Printing Co., [circa 1855]. Broadsheet circular, 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, printed on thin blue paper. Three old horizontal fold lines. A couple small stains in the edges, light edgewear. Very good. In a folding cloth case, gilt leather label.
A rare circular for a Nebraska port town that never came to fruition. Otoe County, Nebraska, located in the southeastern part of the state, against the Missouri River, was formed in 1854. The county seat, Nebraska City, was incorporated in 1855, and was a busy port town, with much steamboat traffic and a large slave population. This rare circular appears to have been issued around the time of Nebraska City's boom, and seeks to build a competing town a few miles north on the Missouri, near the mouth of the Platte, at Bennett's Ferry. The Union Settlement Company announces in this circular that it has already acquired the land, "containing the greatest natural and local advantages on the Upper Missouri," and is laying out a town plan. The town's location is touted, and its natural advantages and soil and mineral qualities are described. The price of shares is given as $10, and no person is allowed to hold more than ten shares.
OCLC locates one copy of this circular, at Yale, which also has another undated Otoe City prospectus with a map. That prospectus, printed by Phair & Company in New York, is promised as forthcoming at the conclusion of the text in this circular, and so the present circular would seem to be the earlier Otoe City promotional. Fine evidence of the push of emigration and town building in the antebellum West. OCLC 54164309, $1,500
Early History of the Texas Revolution
60. Newell, Chester: HISTORY OF THE REVOLUTION IN TEXAS, PARTICULARLY OF THE WAR OF 1835 & '36; TOGETHER WITH THE LATEST GEOGRAPHICAL, TOPOGRAPHICAL, AND STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS OF THE COUNTRY, FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES. ALSO, AN APPENDIX. New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1838. x,[2],215pp., plus folding map printed on thin paper. 12mo. Modern morocco, spine gilt, with most of the original blindstamped cloth affixed to the front and rear boards. Small squares of red tape affixed to the four corners of the map. Foxing. A good copy.
An important early source on the Texas Revolution, drawn from a number of the actors involved in the conflict, and one of the first works on the Texas Republic. The main narrative begins with the events of 1832 and continues through the Congress that convened in the fall of 1836. Newell went to Texas in 1837 for his health and spent a year there. He gathered his information from a variety of primary sources, including Sam Houston, who gives an account of Santa Anna's conduct after his capture (contained in the appendix). Among the Texas military leaders Newell drew from are Lamar, Huston, Poe, Ward, Neil, and Shackleford. "The quotations from participants are of considerable historical value" - Jenkins. There is also a concluding section on natural resources, sketches of a number of towns (large and small), advice to emigrants, and a discussion of religion (Newell, a Protestant minister, thinks Texans could be more pious), morals (again, they could be better) and education in the new Republic. The map shows the region from New Orleans west to 102 degrees, and from Matamoros in the south all the way north to the Red River. Streeter mentions two issues of Newell's book - in the present copy the dedication is printed on page iv and page iii is blank, and the map is dated 1838. "One of the rare and reliable books on Texas" - Raines. "One of the best, as well as one of the earliest, works published about Texas while it was a republic" - Clark. STREETER, TEXAS 1318. BASIC TEXAS BOOKS 151. HOWES N115, "aa." SABIN 54948. RAINES, p.154. RADER 2479. CLARK III:215. GRAFF 3010. EBERSTADT 162:566. $4,250
Broadside Montana Newspaper Extra Carrying News of the Nez Perce War
61. [Nez Perce War]: [Montana]: NEW NORTH-WEST EXTRA. DEER LODGE, THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 1877. THE SITUATION ON THURSDAY...THE SITUATION OF INDIAN AFFAIRS AS KNOWN TO DATE IS THIS: THE IDAHO INDIANS WHO ARRIVED UNDER LOOKING GLASS AND (IT IS STATED,) WHITE BIRD, ARE NOT EXCEEDING 200 WARRIORS STRONG.... Deer Lodge, Montana Territory: New North-West, 1877. Broadside extra, 14 x 5 1/2 inches, printed in double columns. Folio. Old folds. One-inch tear in upper left corner, not affecting text. A few small holes at cross-folds. Very good.
A rare newspaper "extra," printed as a broadside and reporting on threats from Indian warriors in western Montana during the period of the Nez Perce War. In the year since the Custer massacre at Little Bighorn tensions with native tribes continued in Montana and the northwest generally. This newspaper extra, printed in the small western Montana town of Deer Lodge, reports on the movements of the Nez Perce, led by Looking Glass and the prophet, White Bird, and the response from Montana volunteers and the United States Army.
This broadside reports that the Nez Perce have recently arrived in the area, numbering some 200 warriors, and are led by Looking Glass and White Bird. Two days earlier they had been camped near Stevensville and Corvallis, and had not "molested" the Bitter Root settlers. It is reported that Montana's territorial governor, Benjamin Franklin Potts, had recently called for volunteers to meet the threat from the Nez Perce, and some 150 men had responded, though the federal government resisted incorporating the volunteers into regular army forces. In this case the War Department (partial) was acting on the advice of General Philip Sheridan, who commanded the Army in the region and who asserted that he could take care of any Indian threat. Sheridan was aided by two prominent officers, who were also associated with the Custer debacle, Alfred Terry and John Gibbon. The text further reports on the efforts of Governor Potts to organize and direct Montana volunteers, and lauds the efforts of the men from Deer Lodge who offered to defend their land against the Nez Perce. Reports of other Indian attacks are given, in order to guard settlers against complacency: "There were 150 Indians, supposed to be Bannacks, with 200 head of American horses on the overland stage road near Red Rock yesterday. All the people had left except the stage employees. Thos. Watson, of Bannack, writes the INDEPENDENT, July 29th of a confirmed report that the Indians, supposed to be Bannacks, had killed six men on Wood river."
The text of the broadside concludes with a warning for continued vigilance: "It is therefore the desire of the Governor that every man mounted and armed, and all organizations of militia on the West Side, hold themselves in constant readiness to go to any point where they make hostile demonstrations, or to the support of the U.S. troops in case they require it, and that organizations be perfected as rapidly as
possible. Again prepared to furnish promptly the news by extras, we will keep our people advised of any important movement at the earliest moment. It is well to be vigilant. Instant service may be required." Chief Looking Glass was killed just two months later, at the Battle of Bear Paw.
The beginning of the text explains that "the circumstances of the past week have prevented a regular issue of the NEW NORTH-WEST this day." Deer Lodge is located in western Montana, just north of Anaconda and Butte. THE NEW NORTH-WEST, founded in 1869, was published weekly until 1897, though daily issues appeared in the summers of 1870 and 1871. $3,750
Presentation Copy
62. Noyes, Alva J.: THE STORY OF AJAX LIFE IN THE BIG HOLE BASIN. Helena, Mt.: State Publishing Company, 1914. [8],158pp., plus thirteen plates including frontispiece. Original gilt cloth. Cloth slightly worn and soiled, spine ends and corners moderately bumped. Scattered pencil notations. Text somewhat tanned, light foxing to text and plates. Textblock slightly sprung. Good plus.
A presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper: "Lizzie Raney From cousin Al Noyes (Ajax)." "First autobiography published in Montana; by a settler of 1860" - Howes. Noyes actually went to Montana in 1866, just ten years old, and this is an important and scarce history of early settlement and especially the cattle industry there. ADAMS, HERD 1691. ADAMS, SIX-GUNS 1626. SIX SCORE 82. HOWES N219, "aa." GRAFF 3051. SMITH, PACIFIC NORTHWEST AMERICANA 7488. $1,500
Selling Land in Indian Territory
63. [Oklahoma Indian Lands]: PATENT CHOCTAW AND CHICKASAW NATIONS TO WILLIAM E. BROWN...TOWN OF PURCELL, INDIAN TER., CHCKASAW NATION [printed and manuscript title]. Purcell, Oklahoma. January, 1908. [1]p., on a folio sheet. Partially printed form, completed in type, with manuscript signatures and blindstamped seals. Printed and manuscript docketing on the verso. Three horizontal folds. Minor edgewear. Near fine.
Signed in manuscript by Green McCurtain, Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation, and Douglas H. Johnston, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation. This deed, number 852 and dated January 10 & 25, 1908, records the sale of seven lots in block number 52 in Purcell, "Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory" to William E. Brown for the amount of $105. "Chickasaw Nation" is still referred to, despite the fact of Oklahoma statehood a year earlier. Because of its location near the border of the "unassigned lands," Purcell had been a magnet for white settlers since before the Land Run of 1889. This document is fine evidence of its continued allure at the expense of Native titleholders, and a nice example of the signatures of two tribal chiefs. $150
Early Account of the Pacific Whaling Industry, with Marvelous Illustrations
64. Olmsted, Francis Allyn: INCIDENTS OF A WHALING VOYAGE. TO WHICH ARE ADDED OBSERVATIONS ON THE SCENERY, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, AND MISSIONARY STATIONS, OF THE SANDWICH AND SOCIETY ISLANDS, ACCOMPANIED BY NUMEROUS LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTS. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1841. 360pp., including in-text illustrations, plus twelve lithographed plates (including frontispiece). 12mo. Original black blindstamped cloth, rebacked in black cloth, spine gilt. Corners expertly repaired. Scattered light foxing, even tanning, some persistent dampstaining (mostly confined to lower gutter). Occasional pencil underlining or marginalia. A good copy, complete with all the plates.
One of the earliest accounts of the Pacific whaling industry, and an important narrative of a voyage to Hawaii and Tahiti. Olmsted, a recent graduate of Yale, shipped aboard the North America, a New London whaler and "temperance ship" in 1839. They hunted whales in the Atlantic and off the coast of South America and then set sail for Hawaii. Olmsted later proceeded on his own to Tahiti. The excellent plates are based on Olmsted's own drawings, and those showing aspects of whaling activities are considered especially valuable. The plate of Hawaiians surfing is one of the few nineteenth-century depictions of that sport, and there are also views of churches in Hawaii (old and new). Forbes calls for only eleven plates, though this copy has the complete complement of twelve. "The most popular description of the whaling industry previous to...Moby Dick...certainly to be listed among the Pacific classics - Day." Plagued by ill- health Olmsted died in 1844, still quite young. "One of the great classics of life on a whaling voyage, and it includes an important account of the author's visit to Hawaii" - Forbes. HILL 1261. FORBES 1312. DAY, PACIFIC ISLANDS LITERATURE 50. O'REILLY & REITMAN 1041. HUNNEWELL, p.59. HOWES O75, "aa." SABIN 57239. SMITH O19. AMERICAN IMPRINTS 41-3941. $2,250
Surveys for a Southwestern Railroad
65. Palmer, William J.: REPORT OF SURVEYS ACROSS THE CONTINENT IN 1867-'68, ON THE THIRTY-FIFTH AND THIRTY-SECOND PARALLELS, FOR A ROUTE EXTENDING THE KANSAS PACIFIC RAILWAY TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN AT SAN FRANCISCO AND SAN DIEGO. Philadelphia. 1869. 250pp., plus large folding map and folding profile. Original front printed wrapper, bound into modern gray cloth, spine gilt, leather label. Front wrapper a bit chipped, backed by tissue. Large folding map backed on tissue and stored in pocket on rear pastedown. Folding profile with tender fold lines, and some expert repairs to some fold ends. Light vertical crease to titlepage. Very good.
One of the most detailed western railway survey publications, accompanied by a large, important map of the West and a profile of the route from Missouri to California. This work sets forth the ambitious expansion plans for the Kansas Pacific Railway. Shortly after the railroad's decision to follow the Smokey Hill Route across Kansas and into Denver, the railroad began to show interest in moving forward with its projected line through New Mexico and Arizona to the Pacific. The folding map depicts the proposed route of the Kansas Pacific, and is based on the famous Keeler map of 1867, but with a number of additions. It is the first map to show and name the Grand Canyon. The text includes detailed reports of the mineral and agricultural resources along the route in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The folding profile, almost always lacking, shows the changes in elevation along the entire route, from Missouri to California. It is filled with important geographic details (passes, gaps, locations of rivers, etc.), as well as man-made landmarks such as sundry army forts and lines already constructed. In all, the profile offers a stunning visual summary of the challenging and dramatic variances in elevation with which the railroad's engineers had to cope.
"[Palmer's] report is full of all sorts of information - geographic commentary, engineering detail, and comparative discussions of different routes, with attention to such larger matters as mineral resources, manufacturing resources, and sources of traffic" - Wheat. The text also includes an account of James White's journey through the Grand Canyon, introducing what Farquhar calls "one of the most disputed subjects in the history of the river." Howes asserts, almost certainly in error, that some copies have three maps. This copy, like the Graff copy, contains only one folding map. Copies with the map and profile are extremely rare. A fundamental description of the American West. HOWES P54, "aa." WHEAT, TRANSMISSISSIPPI 1206. GRAFF 3177. SABIN 58383. FARQUHAR 24. $3250
Extremely Rare Broadside Proclaiming American Possession of the Philippines in the Wake of the Spanish-American War, Printed in Tagalog
66. [Philippines]: Schurman, Jacob Gould, Admiral George Dewey, et al.: PAHAYAG SA MAÑGA TAGA FILIPINAS. Manila. April 4, 1899. Broadside, 27 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches, printed on fragile paper. Neatly and expertly restored along the right edge of the sheet, not affecting any text. Very good.
An apparently unrecorded broadside printing, entirely in the Tagalog language, of the proclamation of the cession of the Philippines to the United States, announcing American supremacy and aims throughout the archipelago. Under the provisions of the Treaty of Paris of 1898, which officially ended the Spanish- American War, the United States purchased the Philippines from Spain for twenty million dollars. In January, 1899, President McKinley organized the First Philippine Commission, headed by Cornell president Jacob Gould Schurman, and including Admiral George Dewey, and Major General Elwell Otis (military governor of the Philippines). The Schurman Commission was charged with assessing conditions on the islands, determining the reasons behind armed Filipino resistance to the American occupying forces, and proposing a future course of policy in to maintain, in McKinley's words, "order, peace, and public welfare." The civilian commissioners arrived in the Philippines on March 4, and began interviewing leaders of the educated and upper classes of Filipino society, but not any representatives of the resistance movement which was actively waging war against American forces. The present broadside prints the text of the proclamation issued by the commission on April 4, 1899.
The text of the broadside announces American possession and control of the Philippines, as per the provisions of the treaty with Spain. The commissioners announce their presence and the purpose of their mission. The text, as printed in the English-language version, reads (in part): "The commission desire to assure the people of the Philippine Islands of the cordial good will and fraternal feeling which is entertained for them by his Excellency the President of the United States and by the American people. The aim and object of the American government...is the well being, the prosperity, and the (partial) happiness of the Philippine people and their elevation and advancement to a position among the most civilized peoples of the world." The text goes on to describe all the improvements that the United States hopes to bring to the Philippines through peace and order, guarantees of civil and religious liberty, increased trade and the cultivation of industrial pursuits, improvements in education, internal communication, and the administration of justice, all aimed toward "the realization of those noble ideals which constitute the higher realization of mankind." Eleven specific provisions list the measures to be implemented immediately with regard to self-government, civil rights, the administration of justice, road improvements, taxation, and trade. The first provision, however, is a stark warning to those Filipinos who are resisting American rule: "The supremacy of the United States must and will be enforced throughout every part of the archipelago, and those who resist it can accomplish no end other than their own ruin."
The commission's statement was published in English, as well as in a bilingual Spanish-Tagalog version, known in only a handful of copies (OCLC lists only the British Library, Harvard, Massachusetts Historical Society, and the University of Michigan). One of the members of the Schurman Commission, Dean Worcester, was a professor at the University of Michigan, explaining their holding of the Spanish-
Tagalog printing of the April 4, 1899 proclamation. The present broadside, printed in Tagalog only and likely intended to be distributed in the rural areas of the Philippines, is apparently a unique survival. We find no record of it in OCLC, or in the Philippine bibliographies of Welsh, Robertson, Pardo de Tavera, or Barnes. An important broadside, reflecting American colonial power and policy at the end of the 19th century, addressed to the Filipino people in their indigenous language. OCLC 503772391, 23538030 (ref). $6,250
Extensive Archive Documenting the Life and Work of an American Composer
67. Phillips, Burrill: [ARCHIVE OF JOURNALS, CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, DOCUMENTS, CLIPPINGS AND MORE RELATING TO THE LIFE, CAREER, AND WORK OF NOTED AMERICAN COMPOSER, PIANIST, AND TEACHER, BURRILL PHILLIPS]. [Various places, as described below. 1920's to 1980's]. [182]pp. of manuscript and typed journals, a total of some 145,000 words. Manuscript and typed essays plotting several musical compositions, approximately [83]pp. More than one hundred letters and postcards (manuscript and typed), from a variety of correspondents to Phillips. Two large scrapbook volumes filled with programs, ephemera, and newspaper clippings. Eighty- seven photographs of varying sizes. The archive, measuring one linear foot, with expected light wear. In very good condition overall.
A rich, extensive, archive documenting the life and career of the American composer, pianist, and music teacher, Burrill Phillips. The archive documents most of Phillips's life, with an emphasis on the 1930's and 1940's, when he was composing his best-known work. It includes a journal/memoir of nearly 150,000 words, hundreds of letters to Phillips from noted figures in twentieth century music including Leopold Stokowski, Ulysses Kay, Erno Balogh, and Howard Hanson, correspondence between Phillips and his wife, business records documenting his career, programs for performances of Phillips's compositions, scrapbooks, photographs, and much more. The archive offers rich documentation of his life, works, and artistic process, the business side of a composer's life, and his teaching experiences. It is also indicative of a wider effort to promote the works of American-born composers both in the United States and abroad, especially in the post-World War Two era.
Le Roy Burrill Phillips (1907-1988) was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and studied at the Denver College of Music before attending the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. There he studied with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers, and earned bachelor and master's degrees, the latter in 1933. Upon graduating he joined the faculty and taught at the Eastman School until 1949. His first important orchestral work, "Selections from McGuffey's Reader," based on poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes, was composed just after his graduation. It "was an immediate success and established his reputation as a composer with a consciously American style" (Basart). Over the next several decades Phillips composed numerous noteworthy works, and he was very versatile in his output, creating music for orchestras and ensembles, for ballet, the stage, and for film. "The elements of his early style - an emphasis on melodic line, a rich harmonic texture, and rhythmic associations with jazz - had evolved by the late 1930s and early 1940s into a drier, more acerbic idiom, with asymmetrical rhythms and broadened expressiveness. Many of the works written in the 1940s and 1950s reveal a new intensity and compression" - Basart. Phillips taught composition and theory not only at the Eastman School but also at the University of Illinois from 1949 to 1964, and for a brief time at Juilliard and Cornell. He taught several important conductors, and was himself twice a Guggenheim Fellow (in the 1940's and 1960's), and a Fulbright lecturer. Phillips was married in 1928 and his wife, Alberta, wrote many of his librettos. The couple had two children, a son and a daughter. Their daughter, the actress Ann Todd, was raised by her maternal grandparents.
The foundation of this archive is a lengthy, detailed journal/memoir by Burrill Phillips, documenting his life from 1923 to 1943, a total of some 145,000 words. Comprised of a long typescript and a shorter manuscript volume (some 182 pages in all) Phillips relates the events of his life, the development of his
interest in music, his education and growth as a composer, his marriage to Alberta Phillips, and much more.
A full description of this extensive archive is available on request. $7500
68. Pond, Fred E.: LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF "NED BUNTLINE" WITH NED BUNTLINE'S ANECDOTE OF "FRANK FORESTER" AND CHAPTER OF ANGLING SKETCHES. New York: The Cadmus Book Shop, 1919. [8],139pp., plus frontispiece and two plates. Half cloth and paper-covered boards, printed paper spine labels on front board and backstrip. Boards a bit sunned. Very clean and neat internally. Very good.
First edition, from a printing of 250 copies. Edward Zane Carroll Judson, who was better known by the pen-name "Ned Buntline," was a fascinating figure. A veteran of the Seminole Wars, Mexican-American War, and Civil War, he was one of the most prolific and important dime novel writers of the nineteenth century, and an early promoter of Buffalo Bill Cody. He was also a significant sporting writer, as was Frank Forester (the pen name of Henry William Herbert). Pond knew Judson personally, and this early biography is a basic source of information on his colorful life. $200
Woman’s Narrative of Crossing the Plains in 1860 – One of 50 Copies
69. Porter, Lavinia Honeyman: BY OX TEAM TO CALIFORNIA A NARRATIVE OF CROSSING THE PLAINS IN 1860. Oakland, Ca.: Oakland Enquirer Pub. Co., 1910. xi,[1],139pp. Original olive buckram. Corners bumped, lightly shelfworn. Lacks front and rear free endpapers, and so without the original photograph of the author found tipped to the front fly leaf of some copies. Very clean internally. Very good.
Copy number 34 from a stated edition of 50 copies, though we are told that it was actually printed in an edition of 58 (eight of those unnumbered). A rare and important "modern overland," by a courageous woman. Mrs. Porter, twenty-years of age and pregnant with her second child, travelled with her husband and their five year-old-son from Missouri in 1860, originally planning to go no further than the Pike's Peak gold region. While in Nebraska she encountered groups returning from the Pike's Peak rush, and arriving in Denver they found the situation so disagreeable they decided to push on to California. Their route took them through Utah on the Cherokee Trail, where she encountered Mormon emigrants - including those with handcarts - and spent time in Salt Lake City, encountered Indians hostile and friendly, and also observed Pony Express riders. They reached California after six months of travel, and their daughter was born in Folsom. Mrs. Porter's narrative is an important record of an overland journey by an intelligent and observant woman, who records not only the particulars of the journey, but her reactions to the events, and her own conflicted feelings of the undertaking. Historian John Mack Faragher has observed that "endurance was the dominant emotional theme of Lavinia's overland account."
This copy lacks the photograph of the author, tipped to the front fly leaf of some copies. Of the sixteen copies listed in OCLC, several appear to lack the photograph, and of the four copies we locate in the market since the Streeter sale (the Howell copy, offered in 1980 and three at auction since then) only one has had the portrait. "A highly personal and thoroughly delightful account....Although it was written a half-century later, her narrative combines truth with a remarkable memory to produce a vivid and fascinating overland description of the westward crossing" - Howell. "One of the rarest of the overland narratives" - Mintz. "Of extreme rarity" - Norris catalogue. "Few overland narratives printed in the present century have been so avidly and fruitlessly sought" - Eberstadt. COWAN, p.496 (not mentioning the portrait). EBERSTADT, MODERN OVERLANDS 387. HOWES P488, "b." MATTES 1790. MINTZ 373. FLAKE 6413. STREETER SALE 3215. HOWELL 50:1592 (lacking the portrait). EBERSTADT
127:415. NORRIS CATALOGUE 3085. GRAFF 3325. OCLC 3688281. John Mack Faragher, WOMEN AND MEN ON THE OVERLAND TRAIL (New Haven. 1979), p.175. $1,500
70. [Racine and Mississippi Railroad]: THE CHARTER OF THE RACINE AND MISSISSIPPI RAILROAD COMPANY: TOGETHER WITH ACTS AUTHORIZING CITY AND TOWN SUBSCRIPTIONS, AND PROCEEDINGS UNDER THE SAME. Racine, [Wi.]: Job Office of Hulett & Harrison, 1855. 39pp. 12mo. Original printed wrappers. Wrappers very lightly soiled. Faint vertical crease. Near fine.
Includes the act to incorporate the Racine and Mississippi Railroad, as well as several related and supporting acts, some of them instructing Wisconsin towns to assist in the construction of the railway. The Racine and Mississippi Railroad had a brief life, running from 1855 to 1868, when it was incorporated into the Western Union Railroad. The line carried freight and passengers, and ran from Racine to Janesville, and then on to Mississippi River. RAILWAY ECONOMICS and the Wisconsin Imprints Inventory locate only a single copy, at Stanford (the Hopkins Railway Collection), and OCLC adds only the Univ. of Missouri at St. Louis. Rare. RAILWAY ECONOMICS, p.258. AII (WISCONSIN 1855-1858), 68. OCLC 21557069. EBERSTADT 168:521. $575
Connecting San Francisco with the Transcontinental Railroad
71. [Railroads]: 39th CONGRESS, 2d SESSION. S. 641. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. A BILL [TO AID IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SAN FRANCISCO CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD.]. [Washington. 1867]. 12pp. Printed docketing on the verso of the final (blank) leaf. Gathered signatures, string-tied as issued. Folio. Old horizontal folds. Near fine.
This is the "slip bill" printing of a United States Senate bill granting rights and land to the San Francisco Central Pacific Railroad Company to build a railroad from Sacramento to a point at or near the town of Benicia, at the northern end of San Francisco Bay. The construction of such a line would thereby connect San Francisco (by ferry) with the terminus of the proposed transcontinental railroad at Sacramento. The land granted to the railroad was located in Yolo and Solano counties, and United States citizens were given the right to buy stock in the company, thereby helping finance its construction. The bill was introduced by Sen. John Conness of California, and was referred to the Committee on Public Lands. The "Big Four" of the Central Pacific Railroad had their own plans for connecting San Francisco with Sacramento, however, and it was their line from Sacramento to Alameda Pier that became the first direct transcontinental railroad connection to San Francisco, in September, 1869. "Slip bill" printings are by their nature ephemeral - printed to be used during the legislative process and discarded. Not located in OCLC. Rare. $350
72. Reid, Hugo: THE INDIANS OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY. Los Angeles: Privately printed, 1926. [4],70pp. Original paper-covered boards, printed paper spine label. Corners and spine ends bumped, spine label chipped, inch and a half square segment of paper on rear board scraped. Private library inkstamp on three endpapers. Very good.
From an edition of 200 copies. These letters first appeared in the LOS ANGELES STAR in 1852, and were first published in book form in 1885. Reid (1811-1852) was born in Scotland, came to California in 1832, and married a native woman who had converted to Christianity. He was well acquainted with all aspects of Native American life in Los Angeles - customs, traditions, and history - and describes them in this still valuable series of essays. COWAN, p.528. ROCQ 3263. HOWES R167. $150
A Beautiful Copy of This Cornerstone of Western Travel
73. Reid, John C.: REID'S TRAMP; OR, A JOURNAL OF THE INCIDENTS OF TEN MONTHS TRAVEL THROUGH TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, ARIZONA, SONORA, AND CALIFORNIA. INCLUDING TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, SOIL, MINERALS, METALS, AND INHABITANTS; WITH A NOTICE OF THE GREAT INTER-OCEANIC RAIL ROAD. Selma, Al.: Printed at the Book and Job Office of John Hardy & Co., 1858. 237pp., including two in-text diagrams and a list of watering places. Original plum cloth, stamped in blind, spine stamped in gilt. Boards lightly shelfworn, cloth a bit faded and with an old stain in the upper front joint. Bookplate on front pastedown of Dorothy and Clinton Josey, contemporary ownership signatures on front free endpaper, copyright leaf, and an internal margin. Light, mostly marginal, staining to text. The most attractive copy we have seen of a book usually found in much lesser condition. In a half morocco and cloth clamshell case, spine gilt.
One of the great classics of travel and exploration through the American Southwest, and a highly important book. Reid's group, the Mesilla Valley Company, left Marion, Alabama in September, 1857 with the intent of exploring the recently-acquired Gadsden Purchase of southern Arizona and southern New Mexico. They travelled by boat from New Orleans to Galveston and Indianola, and then across Texas. At Fort Bliss he joined Crabb's Auxiliary Expedition, a filibustering enterprise to Mexico that resulted in the massacre of almost all of the original participants. Eberstadt notes that many facts of this and other little-known events are brought to life in Reid's account. The survivors made their way to Tucson Valley and then to the Pima and Maricopa villages. From there they travelled down the Gila to Fort Yuma and San Diego, and northward to San Pedro, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco. He returned to New Orleans via Panama. Reid describes the areas through which he travelled, often providing historical background, and discusses German emigrants, Indian life, flora and fauna, agricultural possibilities, and more. "One of the great southwestern rarities" - Streeter. "Very scarce in original binding, and extremely important" - Eberstadt, who hypothesizes that many copies were destroyed in Selma during the Civil War. "Excessively rare. Probably no subsequent overland, and only one or two of earlier date, can in any way compare with it in point of actual rarity" - Huntington Sale.
Not in Sabin. An attractive copy of a very important book. WAGNER-CAMP 307. HOWES R172, "d." ALABAMA IMPRINTS 1091. COWAN, p.528. RAINES, p.172. CLARK 490. RADER 2776. GRAFF 3450. GRAFF, FIFTY TEXAS RARITIES 39. JONES, ADVENTURES IN AMERICANA 279. VANDALE TEXIANAMETER 140. DESERT VOICES, p.138. STREETER SALE 176. HUNTINGTON SALE 740. EBERSTADT 136:574, 162:667. $21,500
Inscribed
74. Riis, Jacob A.: THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1901. xiii,[1],443,[2]pp. Frontispiece and illustrations. Original blue cloth, gilt, t.e.g. Shelfworn, worn at spine ends and corners. Front hinge loosening. Very good.
Inscribed by Riis on the front free endpaper, "Faithfully yours / Jacob A. Riis / New York / Dec. 9 1901." This copy bears the ownership inscription, also on the front free endpaper, of former Ohio Congressman Milton Southard (1836-1905). First edition of this classic memoir by the journalist, social reformer, and photographer. An important perspective on the late nineteenth century immigrant experience in America. $850
75. Robinson, Charles L.: ORGANIZATION OF THE FREE STATE GOVERNMENT IN KANSAS, WITH THE INAUGURAL SPEECH AND MESSAGE OF GOVERNOR ROBINSON. Washington: Buell & Blanchard, 1856. 13pp., printed in double columns. Dbd. Near fine.
Charles Robinson was the first governor of Kansas, taking office in January, 1861. Before that, though, he was elected "governor" of Kansas Territory under the Topeka Constitution, the unratified Free Stater document that would have banned slavery in Kansas. This pamphlet describes the convening of the Topeka government and prints Robinson's inaugural address, which speaks strongly against slavery and defends the legitimacy of his authority and of popular sovereignty in Kansas. President Franklin Pierce soon declared the Topeka government to be illegal and ordered the arrest of its leaders. Federal troops dispersed the legislature in the summer of 1856. "Bleeding Kansas" was already underway, and it would take three more proposed constitutions before the free-state Wyandotte document was approved and Charles Robinson was, again, elected governor of Kansas. Robinson's anti-authority activities stretched back to his days as a newspaper editor in Sacramento during the Gold Rush, when he supported squatters rights during the riots of 1850. SABIN 37075. LIBRARY COMPANY AFRO-AMERICANA CATALOGUE 8926. DECKER 23:237. EBERSTADT 137:539. $225
Killed in the Mexican-American War
76. Rowles, W.P.: THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF CAPT. WM. B. ALLEN, OF LAWRENCE COUNTY, TENN., WHO FELL AT THE STORMING OF MONTEREY, ON THE 21st OF SEPTEMBER, 1846. WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING A NUMBER OF HIS ESSAYS AND SPEECHES. Columbia, Tn.: J.J. M'Daniel, "Democratic Herald" Book Office, 1853. 228pp. Frontispiece portrait. Original black blindstamped cloth, front board stamped in gilt. Expertly rebacked, retaining most of original backstrip. Contemporary pencil inscription on front fly-leaf (see below). Modern bookplate on rear pastedown. Foxing. About very good overall.
A presentation copy, inscribed on the front fly-leaf: "This book presented to Wm. D. Southworth by the father of Capt. Allen this 14 Nov. 1859." William B. Allen (1824-1846) was elected to the Tennessee legislature in 1845 and participated in the contentious debates over Texas and the Oregon question. At the outbreak of the Mexican War he volunteered for military service, and was killed at the Battle of Monterey in 1846, just twenty-two years old. This volume is a tribute to his short but eventful life, discussing his college career at the University of Nashville, his views on the admission of Texas and the settlement of the Oregon boundary, and his military career. The last third of the text reprints many of his speeches and writings. This copy contains the frontispiece portrait of Captain Allen, not present in all copies. The rear pastedown bears the bookplate of noted military history collector, C.R. Sanders. Not in Haferkorn. ALLEN, TENNESSEE IMPRINTS 3299. ALLEN, TENNESSEE RARITIES 632. GARRETT, p.246. SABIN 73595. $1,250
77. Rye, Edgar: THE QUIRT AND THE SPUR. Chicago: W.B. Conkey Company, [1909]. 363pp., including eleven full-page illustrations (including frontispiece portrait). Original pictorial tan cloth. Light wear at corners and spine ends. Previous owners' address label on rear pastedown. Near fine.
A well-regarded series of sketches of West Texas in the late nineteenth century, with much on Shackelford County and Fort Griffin, cattle ranching and outlaws. Rye was born in Kentucky in 1848, moved to Texas in 1876, worked as county attorney and justice of the peace in Shackelford County, and also as a journalist and cartoonist for several newspapers. There are many tales of the cowboy, as well as buffalo hunting and Indian fighting. This first edition was supposedly suppressed by a prominent ranching family upset with the contents. SIX SCORE 95. ADAMS, HERD 1982. ADAMS, SIX-GUNS 1923. RADER 2864. DOBIE, p.161. HOWES R559. $300
Annotated Vernacular Photographs of the Aftermath of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires
78. [San Francisco Earthquake and Fires]: [THIRTY-EIGHT ORIGINAL, AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS OF SAN FRANCISCO IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE EARTHQUAKE AND FIRES OF APRIL, 1906]. [San Francisco. 1906]. Thirty-eight original photographic prints, each measuring 4 x 5 inches and each captioned in ink on the verso. Slight edgewear. Near fine.
A collection of thirty-eight original, amateur photographic prints of scenes in San Francisco after the devastating earthquake and fires of April, 1906. These photographs, each of which are captioned and numbered on the verso, were found among the papers of Mrs. Dorothy E. Cahill (nee Lynch), who was only in her mid-teens in 1906. The photographs were apparently taken by her parents, and captioned by her mother.
The photographs were taken within weeks of the earthquake and fires, and show devastated buildings, burned-out hulks, and scenes of utter devastation, reinforcing the fact that as terrible as the earthquake was, it was the subsequent fires that did the most damage. One image shows an office building on California Street, "the 'Wall Street' of the West," showing the remains of piles of "non-fire proof safes" in front of the burned-out building. Others show the remains of an apartment building at Hyde and Broadway, ruins on Van Ness Street, the site of the Mechanics' Pavilion, the shell of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and more. The final photograph, numerically, shows a relatively intact St. Mary's Cathedral, the note on the verso remarking that it "marks boundary of fire line." Earthquake damage is evident as well in the images of crumbling and askew buildings, including the Ferry Building, City Hall, the Dominican Church, the Bank of California, and a row of houses on Howard Street. One photograph shows bent streetcar rails near the waterfront, while another shows Mrs. Lynch standing on Market Street, four blocks from the Ferry Building, with the nearby curbstone at the level of her head, showing how much Market Street dropped during the earthquake.
A number of the photographs show relief efforts in the weeks following the disaster, including (well- dressed) refugees in a bread line in Jefferson Park, a man in a suit walking down Market Street carrying a suitcase and knapsack, tents in a refugee camp in Golden Gate Park, refugees standing beside a pond in the park, a stand selling fruit and tents on Market Street, and two children standing beside a cauldron of boiling water. One images shows the "temporary home of the Emporium, America's greatest store" with horse-drawn carriages passing before it.
An excellent group of photographs of San Francisco's great cataclysm. $950
San Francisco Authorized to Sell Waterfront Property
79. [San Francisco]: ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 238. AN ACT TO GIVE FURTHER POWERS TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO [manuscript docket title]. [Sacramento. 1856]. [4]pp. manuscript on folio sheets, approximately 1,000 words. Bound by two rivets in top edge. Three old horizontal folds. Lightly soiled. Very good.
A contemporary manuscript copy of an 1856 California Assembly bill, giving the San Francisco Board of Supervisors the authority to sell "City Slip" property in order to pay legal judgments against the city, including money owed to a figure involved with the city's first Vigilance Committee. The Board of Supervisors was and is the legislating council of the city and county of San Francisco. This bill authorized the Board to sell highly coveted and valuable lots along the waterfront in order to raise funds to pay plaintiffs who had successfully sued the city. It is very good evidence of the premium on real estate in late Gold Rush-era San Francisco, especially as against other means of raising revenue. Among the specific litigants named in this bill who successfully sued the city of San Francisco was banker Felix Argenti, who in 1851 was part of a notorious lawsuit involving the First Vigilance Committee. Other lawsuits specified
in the bill include cases brought by the Lucas, Turner & Company banking house (the San Francisco branch of which was established by William Tecumseh Sherman in 1853), H.W.Seale, and former alderman Nathaniel Holland. $500
Early Map of San Francisco, Published as a Letter Sheet
80. [San Francisco]: [California Pictorial Letter Sheet]: MAP OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. San Francisco: Lith. & Published by Quirot & Co., [ca. 1853]. Map, printed as a pictorial letter sheet, 8 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches, on a folded sheet of blue wove paper (16 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches) with blank conjugate leaf attached. Some very slight edgewear. Near fine.
A map of San Francisco, done as a letter sheet (this copy with the blank conjugate leaf attached) showing the city from Mission Bay to North Point, and inland to Larkin Street. Various types of ships are shown in the bay, and nine buildings and are located, including the Custom House, Post Office, Jenny Lind Theatre (and other theatres), the prison, and city hall (at Stockton and Filbert). Also located are seven churches and Yerba Buena cemetery, running along Market between Larkin and Jones. BAIRD, CALIFORNIA'S PICTORIAL LETTER SHEETS 148. CLIFFORD LETTER SHEET COLLECTION 153. PETERS, CALIFORNIA ON STONE, p.138. $1,750
Funding the Seminole War and the Trail of Tears
81. [Seminole War]: [Trail of Tears]: H.R. 1090. JANUARY 29, 1839. A BILL MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR PREVENTING AND SUPPRESSING INDIAN HOSTILITIES FOR THE YEAR EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINE [caption title]. [Washington. 1839]. 6pp. Small folio. Dbd., removed from a sammelband. Final leaf tanned, and with a small chip in the upper outer corner. Very good.
A rare "slip bill" printing of the appropriations bill funding military operations in the Second Seminole War, and providing funds to move the Cherokees westward during the Trail of Tears. This legislation describes in detail the funds to be appropriated, mostly for the military, to combat the Seminole tribe in Florida. The Second Seminole War was one of the longest and costliest of the military campaigns against American Indian tribes and this appropriations bill was passed right in the middle of that expensive conflict. Funds are set aside for the Second Dragoons, for forage, the purchase of powder and weapons, freight, supplies, transportation, the hiring of laborers, the pay of soldiers, militia, and volunteers, naval vessels, etc. In all, nearly seven million dollars are appropriated for operations against the Seminoles in the year 1839. An amendment to the bill, printed at the conclusion, appropriates more than a million dollars to aid the Cherokee in their move westward during their removal from Georgia to Indian Territory, known as the Trail of Tears. Slip bill printings are by their nature ephemeral - printed to be used during the legislative process and discarded. This legislation, providing funds for the two most significant Indian operations of the period - the Seminole War and the Trail of Tears - is highly significant indeed. "Slip bills" were printed in rather small numbers for use of members of Congress while the legislation was being considered, and their survival is rare. OCLC locates a single copy, at Appalachian State University. Rare. OCLC 945196662. $875
Important Accounts of Overland Travel During the Gold Rush
82. [Sexton, Lucy Foster (editor)]: THE FOSTER FAMILY CALIFORNIA PIONEERS FIRST OVERLAND TRIP 1849 SECOND OVERLAND TRIP 1852 THIRD OVERLAND TRIP 1853 FOURTH TRIP (VIA PANAMA) 1857. [Santa Barbara. 1925]. 285pp., including illustrations. 12mo. Original fabrikoid boards. Hinges reinforced. Ex-library with inked indication on spine, bookplate on
front pastedown, ink stamp and bar code (blotted out in black ink) and removed card pocket on front free endpaper. Four ink stamps in text margins, otherwise quite clean internally. Good plus.
The expanded and preferred second edition, following the first of 1889. This edition includes the account of a journey via Panama in 1857. A significant collection of overland travels to California in the 1850s, some written by women, with much valuable information. Assembled for descendants of the Foster family, this volume brings together the diary entries and numerous letters written by Isaac Foster to his wife and family as he crossed the plains from Illinois to California with his father and brother in 1849. He also recounts his experiences mining on the Feather River in a long essay and in other letters. Foster returned to Illinois and journeyed again to California in 1852 with some family members, which is the second overland narrative, largely comprised of the recollections of his daughter, Mariett Foster Cummings. He eventually became a judge, and there is much on life in California in the 1850s, including in San Jose, Santa Barbara and Santa Clara. The third overland trip was as part of a large caravan, and is told from the perspective of Roxanna Foster, daughter-in-law of the judge. Scarce in the market, another copy (similarly ex-library) sold in 2016 for $937.50. Afforded a "b" rating by Howes, indicative of its relative scarcity. EBERSTADT, MODERN OVERLANDS 428. MINTZ 416. KURUTZ 251b. HECKMAN 128. MATTES 445, 1147, 1472. COWAN (1964 additions) 177. ROCQ 14119. HOWES F292, "b." GRAFF 1390. DECKER 36:156. $750
A Canadian in the Gold Rush
83. Shaw, Pringle: RAMBLINGS IN CALIFORNIA; CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY, LIFE AT THE MINES, STATE OF SOCIETY, &c. INTERSPERSED WITH CHARACTERISTIC ANECDOTES, AND SKETCHES FROM LIFE, BEING THE FIVE YEARS' EXPERIENCE OF A GOLD DIGGER. Toronto: [John Blackburn, ca. 1856]. 239pp. Half title. 12mo. Original green cloth, stamped in blind and gilt. Cloth lightly faded and rubbed, corners bumped and lightly worn. Early ownership signature on front free endpaper, faint old notes in blue pencil on first leaf of text. Tear in leaf L2, affecting about two dozen words on the recto and verso of the leaf, else very good.
Pringle Shaw came from Canada in search of California gold in 1851, and mined primarily in the Yuba River region. He writes in his preface that he did not make a "pile," but his account is valuable for its observations on men and events in the mines, and California in the early 1850s. He relates his experiences clearly and authoritatively, and writes with wit and style. Shaw describes mining methods, the state of mining in Yuba and the southern mines, gives accounts of various counties and missions, and the towns of San Diego, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara. He also describes the activities of speculators, and the sale of mining claims by auction. Kurutz notes that Shaw includes "a fine account of the varied types of people found, with emphasis on the Chinese" and Wheat writes that "this little book has much to commend it." There is no publication date in the book, and it has been tentatively dated by bibliographers from 1856 to 1860. KURUTZ 570. COWAN 580. WHEAT, GOLD RUSH 184. ROCQ 16051. HOWES S348. SABIN 79954. TPL 8607. STREETER SALE 2855. $1,350
84. Shaw, R.C.: ACROSS THE PLAINS IN FORTY-NINE. Farmland, In.: W.C. West, 1896. 200pp. Portrait. 12mo. Original pebbled cloth, front board and spine stamped in gilt. Worn at spine ends and corners, cloth scraped along foredges of boards, and with a few small holes in the joint cloth. Quite clean internally. Good.
A presentation copy, inscribed on the front fly leaf, "Presented to Mr. & Mrs. T. Hubbard." Reuben C. Shaw was a member of the Mt. Washington Mining Company, and travelled to California along the North Platte Route, arriving at Sutter's Fort on September 6, 1849. He describes the difficulty of the journey, including cholera and Indian scares, in detail. The final chapter recounts mining activities in the vicinity
of Weber Creek. This memoir is expanded from articles that Shaw originally wrote for the FARMLAND ENTERPRISE in 1895, and is a lively, well-written account of a Gold Rush overland journey, and experiences in the mines. KURUTZ 571. COWAN, p.580. HOWES S349, "aa." GRAFF 3744. EBERSTADT, MODERN OVERLANDS 431. MINTZ 420. NORRIS CATALOGUE 3586. $300
One of the Earliest Reports on the Reese River Mining District
85. Silliman, Benjamin: UNITED REESE RIVER SILVER MINING COMPANY, SITUATED IN AUSTIN, LANDER COUNTY, NEVADA. New York. 1865. 21,[1]pp. Modern half leatherette and cloth, gilt leather spine label. Fine.
One of the earliest and rarest reports on the Reese River mining district in Nevada, where silver deposits were found in 1862. Benjamin Silliman, a Yale chemist, is noted for his influential reports on oil deposits in California. The present mining report is little known, though highly indicative of the silver mining activity in Nevada at the time. Silliman's report is datelined at San Francisco, where the company was headquartered, and is dated December 23, 1864. He gives a geographical and geological review of the area around Austin, the boomtown that was the seat of Lander County and the hub of mining activity in the Reese River district, and distinguishes the region's veins and ore from those in places like Virginia City. Silliman writes: "It is evident, from the examination of all the facts presented in the Reese River District, that there are assembled, especially about Austin, where your Company has its location, a remarkable number of well characterized mineral veins carrying the richest silver ores. Most of these have been taken up and worked by poor men without other resources than the veins themselves have furnished. For the amount of ground opened and the capital employed, there is no mining region comparable with it in Nevada for promise for the future, and for the judicious use of capital." The United Reese River Mining Company was composed of thirty active mines, several of which are described in detail. Following Silliman's report is a list of twenty-eight named mines and a brief assay report on each by Gideon Moore, giving impressive value per ton for each mine.
"One of the earliest detailed reports of the Reese River mines" - Eberstadt. The titlepage notes that this report was "printed for private distribution." There are two editions of this report, published in New York and in Boston, both in 1865, with no priority established between the two. The company was headquartered in San Francisco, but its East Coast offices were in New York, which may indicate that the New York edition was issued earlier. Neither edition is in Paher nor Lingenfelter, both of whom list several titles on the Reese River mining boom. Sabin lists the Boston edition only, and Streeter had a copy of the Boston edition, which is much more common than this New York edition. OCLC locates eight copies of the Boston edition, but only two copies of this New York edition, at Yale and at Lehigh. The only other copy of this New York edition that we find in the market was offered by the Eberstadts in 1963. Rare. OCLC 28151229. EBERSTADT 160:404. SABIN 81065 (Boston edition). STREETER SALE 2340 (Boston edition). $2,750
Presentation Copy
86. Siringo, Charles A.: A COWBOY DETECTIVE A TRUE STORY OF TWENTY-TWO YEARS WITH A WORLD-FAMOUS DETECTIVE AGENCY GIVING THE INSIDE FACTS OF THE BLOODY COEUR D'ALENE LABOR RIOTS, AND THE MANY UPS AND DOWNS OF THE AUTHOR THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES, ALASKA, BRITISH COLUMBIA AND OLD MEXICO ALSO EXCITING SCENES AMONG THE MOONSHINERS OF KENTUCKY AND VIRGINIA. Chicago: W.B. Conkey Company, 1912. 519pp., plus twenty plates (including frontispiece). Small octavo. Original green cloth, front board and spine gilt, and with gilt illustration of a Colt .45 on the front board. Cloth rubbed, worn along the joints and edges. Hinges just a touch loose. Very clean internally. Very good overall.
A presentation copy, inscribed by Siringo on the front free endpaper, dated at Santa Fe (where he was living) in the year of publication: "To my dear friend Mrs. A. Porterfield with compliments of the author Chas. A. Siringo." Siringo was a cowboy early in his life, and then worked for twenty-two years as a detective with the Pinkertons, before a falling-out with the agency. He wrote this memoir soon thereafter, and quickly ran afoul of his former employers, with whom he had signed a non-disclosure agreement, and who demanded that he change their name and the name of certain other individuals. Therefore, the Pinkerton Agency is renamed "Dickenson," Tom Horn is called "Tim Corn," etc. Siringo is an engaging writer, and recounts his adventures in great style, including bloody activities during the 1892 Coeur D'Alene miners strike (during which Siringo infiltrated the union), chasing kidnappers, train robbers, and murderers, guarding gold mines, and much more. A classic account of an adventurous life in the west. HOWES S515, "aa." ADAMS, SIX-GUNS 2026. ADAMS, HERD 2072. GRAFF 3802. DYKES, BILLY THE KID 63. $900
Rare Narrative of the Mexican-American War, by a Hoosier
87. Smith, Isaac: REMINISCENCES OF A CAMPAIGN IN MEXICO: AN ACCOUNT OF THE OPERATIONS OF THE INDIANA BRIGADE ON THE LINE OF THE RIO GRANDE AND SIERRA MADRE, AND A VINDICATION OF THE VOLUNTEERS AGAINST THE ASPERSIONS OF OFFICIALS AND UNOFFICIALS. Indianapolis: Published by Chapmans & Spann, 1848. 116pp. Original printed goldenrod wrappers, expertly rebacked in matching paper. Early ownership signature on front wrapper. Light foxing. Very good. In a folding cloth box, gilt morocco spine label.
"Second edition, revised and enlarged", following the exceedingly rare first edition of the same year. An important and rare narrative of the Mexican-American War, written by a volunteer soldier. A member of the First Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, "the author was an active participant in the campaigns and his narrative contains interesting particulars of out-of-the-way forays and adventures not elsewhere revealed" (Eberstadt). Chapters relate Doniphan's expedition, the New Mexico campaign, the conquest of Monterrey, and the Battle of Buena Vista, and also more obscure fights in Mexico, including the battles of San Francisco, Sacramento, and more. Smith's work is also an important defense of the role played by volunteers in the Mexican-American War. Though they fought bravely and well (with some exceptions), volunteers were often derided by the professional army, including Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor. The final thirty pages relate to the efforts of volunteers from Indiana, Alabama, and elsewhere. He writes in the preface: "justice is still due to those who fought at Buena Vista...and a strict retribution awaits those who, knowing the facts, refuse to award justice to such as have suffered through the incompetency of officers."
The first edition, also printed in Indianapolis in 1848, is virtually unobtainable; OCLC locates only the copy at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Sabin adds the Library of Congress, and Howes notes only those two and a third, unlocated, copy. The first edition numbers just over two hundred pagers, but is sextodecimo in format, as opposed to this enlarged octavo second edition. This second edition is rare in the market, and is given a "b" rating by Howes, "obtainable only with considerable difficulty." This is the Jennie Crocker Henderson copy, handled by John Howell-Books, though not appearing in their Catalogue 50.
Not in the Streeter collection. GARRETT, p.181. TUTOROW 3500. HAFERKORN, p.52. BYRD & PECKHAM 1498. COWAN (1964 ADDITIONS) 580. SABIN 82742. HOWES S602, "b." EBERSTADT 105:111 & MEXICAN WAR COLLECTION 802. $3,500
Extensive Contemporary History of Early San Francisco
88. Soule, Frank, John H. Gihon, and James Nisbet: THE ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO; CONTAINING A SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST DISCOVERY, SETTLEMENT, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT CONDITION OF CALIFORNIA, AND A COMPLETE HISTORY OF ALL THE IMPORTANT EVENTS CONNECTED WITH ITS GREAT CITY: TO WHICH ARE ADDED, BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF SOME PROMINENT CITIZENS. ILLUSTRATED WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FINE ENGRAVINGS. New York & San Francisco: D. Appleton & Company, 1855. 824pp., including in-text illustrations and a single-page map, plus folding map and six plates (including frontispiece). Thick octavo. Contemporary morocco boards, stamped in blind and gilt, expertly and unobtrusively rebacked in matching black morocco, retaining original gilt lettering piece, raised bands, a.e.g. Corners expertly restored, bookplate on front pastedown. Very light wear to boards. Two-inch closed tear in edge of folding map where bound in. A handsome copy.
"The most important contemporary work on San Francisco...a classic" - Wheat. Historian Richard Dillon, in his foreword to the 1999 Berkeley Hills Press edition of the book, calls THE ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO "not only the best single book ever written on the City...but has also proved itself to be the most influential book ever set in type to concern itself with San Francisco." The text is largely based on newspaper reports (Soule and Nisbet were journalists), on information from pioneer citizens, and on the authors' personal knowledge. The third author, John Gihon, was a medical doctor with an interest in history. Gary Kurutz notes that not only is THE ANNALS an outstanding narrative history of San Francisco, it "also supplies much information on mining and its impact on this instant city." The folding map shows the region explored by the United States and Mexican Boundary Commission, and the single- page map is of San Francisco. The frontispiece shows the view on Montgomery Street northward, and there are portraits of Commodore Stockton, John Geary, and others, as well as a plethora of illustrations, representing one of the finest collections of views of Gold Rush California. ZAMORANO 80, 70. COWAN, p. 601. KURUTZ 594. WHEAT, GOLD RUSH 193. ROCQ 7970. SABIN 87268. HOWES S769, "aa." GRAFF 3901. BARRETT 2301. HOWELL 50:791. NORRIS CATALOGUE 3458. $700
An Early Argument in Support of the Chinese in California
89. Speer, William, Rev.: AN HUMBLE PLEA, ADDRESSED TO THE LEGISLATURE OF CALIFORNIA, IN BEHALF OF THE IMMIGRANTS FROM THE EMPIRE OF CHINA TO THIS STATE. San Francisco: Published at the Office of the Oriental, Printed by Sterrett & Co., 1856. 40pp. Original printed salmon wrappers. Ex-Union Theological Seminary, with their ink stamp and call number sticker on the front wrapper. Old vertical crease. Eight interior leaves a bit tanned, more so than those preceding and following. Very good.
Signed "with respects of the author" on the front wrapper. Speer had been a missionary in China and was founder of the Presbyterian Church in San Francisco's Chinatown. Established in 1853 it was the first Chinese church in the United States. For many years he wrote on the condition of Chinese immigrants in California, and in their defense. This work was published at the office of THE ORIENTAL, a weekly Chinese-English newspaper Speer had established. Here he addresses the California legislature on the unfair treatment faced by Chinese in the state, especially in the mines. Speer writes that the Chinese are treated unfairly, made to pay exorbitant fees for mining licenses and immigrant taxes. He uses Chinese Camp in Tuolumne County as an example of the costs paid and benefits created by Chinese in the mining regions, reporting on the high rents they pay as opposed to white miners, and contrasting that treatment with the great revenue they bring to white-owned businesses. He also reviews Chinese emigration patterns to California, and the value of imports from China. Rather scarce in the market - this is the only copy that we can find offered at auction. COWAN, CHINESE QUESTION, p.58. GREENWOOD 768. ROCQ 12262. DRURY 106. COWAN, p.604. NORRIS CATALOGUE 3692 ("very rare"). SABIN 89256. $500
90. Squier, E.G.: NOTES ON CENTRAL AMERICA; PARTICULARLY THE STATES OF HONDURAS AND SAN SALVADOR: THEIR GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, POPULATION, RESOURCES, PRODUCTIONS, &c., & c., AND THE PROPOSED HONDURAS TRANS-OCEANIC RAILWAY. London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., 1856. [2],397pp., [i.e. 395pp., without a leaf with pages numbered 141-142, as issued, and textually complete]. Includes an in-text map and illustration, plus five folding maps (including frontispiece) and nine plates (one containing two views). Original brown cloth, stamped in gilt and blind. Hinges repaired, light shelfwear, corners and spine end worn. Quite clean and neat internally. Very good.
A presentation copy of the first British edition, following the first American by a year. In fact, this edition also lists Harper & Brothers of New York in the imprint, and appears to be the same text, illustrations, and map as the first American, with a new titlepage. This copy is inscribed on the front free endpaper "Hon. C.P. Villiers, with the best respects of the author." Charles Pelham Villiers (1802-1898) was an influential member of Parliament, sitting in the House of Commons for more than six decades. A champion of the working man, he successfully fought for the repeal of the Corn Laws and was at the head of the free trade movement.
E.G. Squier was the American charge d'affaires to the Central American republics, and a prolific writer on the region. This is an important description of Honduras and San Salvador in the 1850s, with considerations of politics, governmental structure, the economy, administrative districts, rivers, bays, ports, harbors, mineral resources, agriculture, and future prospects for development (a major hindrance being poor roads). A chapter gives details on a proposed inter-oceanic railway through Honduras, illustrated in the large folding frontispiece map. This copy has an extra map tipped in, showing proposed routes of interoceanic communication. The plates show views of Tegucigalpas, the island of Tigre, Comayuga, Puero Caballos, the volcano of San Vicente, and more. "The most complete work on Central America, by the U.S. diplomatic agent and promoter who supplemented observation with research" - Griffin. This English edition is not noted by Sabin, and is more scarce than the American. GRIFFIN 4411. PALAU 321801. PILLING 3724. SABIN 89981 (ref). $575
Epic Poem of the Civil War, Signed
91. Steele, John, Rev.: THE SCHOOLMATES OR MARY HOWARD AN EPIC OF THE WAR OF 1861-5. Lodi, Wi.: Published by J. Steele, [1901]. 130pp. Portrait. Original cloth-backed printed stiff wrappers. Wrappers lightly soiled and edgeworn, a bit of wear at spine ends. Very clean internally. A few instances of neat, authorial manuscript corrections. Very good.
Signed by Steele "compliments of the author" on the front free endpaper, dated December 2, 1901. John Steele (1832-1905) is most famous for his two volumes of Gold Rush memoirs, and an overland guide. One of those memoirs, IN CAMP AND CABIN, was also privately published by Steele in Lodi in 1901, in a burst of autobiographical and creative energy. After his experiences in California Steele returned to the Midwest and taught in Missouri before volunteering for service in the Civil War, nearly thirty years of age. He eventually attained the rank of first lieutenant in Company A of the 153rd Illinois Infantry Volunteers. In the preface he notes that this epic poem was written in camp and in the field in the early part of 1864. Though fictionalized, it is founded on the facts of his service, recounting combat, life in camp, and commenting on slavery. For the last thirty-five years of his life Steele was a minister in the Protestant Episcopal Church in Wisconsin. Not in Dornbusch, who lists no regimental histories of the 153rd Illinois Infantry Volunteers, making Steele's epic poem as close to a memoir of that regiment that we can expect to find. OCLC locates only seven copies. We find no copies at auction or in the trade in the past fifty years. Rare. OCLC 13623161. $675
Service in the Mexican-American War, and a California Secession Plot
92. Stevenson, Jonathan D.: MEMORIAL AND PETITION OF COL. J.D. STEVENSON OF CALIFORNIA. San Francisco: J.R. Brodie & Co., Steam Printers, 1886. 16,16a-16j,17-89pp. including frontispiece portrait, plus three colored plates. Original printed grey wrappers. Wrappers soiled and stained, worn at corners, expertly rebacked in matching grey paper. Contemporary signature on front wrapper. Old tideline in lower margin throughout. About very good.
Colonel Stevenson, whose company of New York Volunteers served in the Mexican-American War and gained fame in California afterward, here petitions the Congress for a pension for his service, with details of his many activities. Stevenson includes his memoirs of the war, the conquest of California, his actions at Los Angeles, the Kearney expedition of 1846, his friendship with Pio Pico, and his career in San Francisco after the war. "Very rare...[includes] previously unrevealed details of the conspiracy to form an independent Republic in the West, consisting of California, Oregon and Nevada" - Howell. That plot, hatched in 1861 by anti-Union figures in California, involved fomenting a rebellion in the state, and was snuffed out with Stevenson's assistance. The ten-page text section numbered 16a-16j recounts, at length, the presentation of bibles to the regiment by the American Bible Society, just as they were to depart New York for the West.
Though they saw little action during the Mexican-American War, Stevenson's Regiment has gone down in history due to the accomplishments of its survivors during the Gold Rush and in business, politics, and vigilante activities. The front wrapper of each copy of Stevenson's MEMORIAL bears a printed note "compliments of Col. J.D. Stevenson", this copy apparently given to Mr. Andrew Rutherford, whose name is written in manuscript (perhaps by Stevenson) just above the printed message. Not in Garrett. Not in Streeter, nor in the collected Eberstadt or Decker catalogues. TUTOROW 3528. COWAN, p.614. HOWES S979, "b." GRAFF 3983. HOWELL 50:853. $1,850
93. Thompson, G.A.: NARRATIVE OF AN OFFICIAL VISIT TO GUATEMALA FROM MEXICO. London: John Murray, 1829. xii,vi,528pp., plus folding map. Half title. 12mo. Slightly later three-quarter morocco and marbled boards, spine gilt. Front board and half of backstrip smoke-darkened, map singed at edges and along one fold. Closed three-inch tear in map near gutter, splits along folds. Text quite clean. A good copy.
George Alexander Thompson, a British commissioner to Mexico, was sent to Guatemala to report on conditions in the newly-independent United Provinces of Central America, and the potential for British colonization. He delivers a fairly comprehensive report on Guatemala, its people, villages, capital city, government, civil structure, the role of the church in society, mines, the state of the slave trade, and also offers some thoughts on Mexico and Belize. The map shows Central America from the Yucatan to Costa Rica's southern border, and has an inset showing a proposed canal route from Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific Ocean. GRIEB GU 1293. PALAU 331831. SABIN 95511. GRIFFIN 4403. $600
The Texas Revolution, From the Mexican Side
94. Tornel y Mendivil, Jose Maria: TEJAS Y LOS ESTADOS-UNIDOS DE AMERICA, EN SUS RELACIONES CON LA REPUBLICA MEXICANA. Mexico: Impreso por Ignacio Cumplido, 1837. 98pp. Modern calf, ruled in gilt, gilt leather spine label. Faint blindstamp in upper outer corner of titlepage. Light even tanning, scattered foxing. Good.
An important study of events in Texas by the former Minister Plenipotentiary of Mexico to the United States. As the Mexican minister in Washington Tornel was highly sensitive to questions of American colonization in Texas, and one of the prime features of this work is his report on Texas colonization
contracts from 1825 to 1834. In 1837 Tornel was the Mexican Secretary of War and Marine, and Streeter describes this work as being written "with considerable venom." He reviews the history of Texas to after the Battle of San Jacinto, seeing in all American moves in Texas the fulfillment of the "Manifest Destiny" impulse. Most significantly, Tornel urges Mexico to fight on in the Texans' war for independence, foretelling that the loss of Texas would ultimately result in Mexico's loss of California and New Mexico. STREETER TEXAS 932. HOWES T302, "b." SABIN 96208. RADER 3145. GRAFF 4167. GRAFF, FIFTY TEXAS RARITIES 18. EBERSTADT 162:841. JONES 1005. HOWELL 50:233. PALAU 334525. $1,750
When Mail Delivery on Sundays Became a Political Issue: A Rare Broadside
95. [U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads]: REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ON THE PETITIONS AGAINST THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE SUNDAY MAILS. Philadelphia: Published by J. Marot - A. Waldie, Printer, [1830]. Broadside, 20 1/2 x 15 inches, printed in two columns. Woodcut illustration in top margin. Lightly soiled. Some closed marginal tears, not affecting text. Very good. Framed (not examined out of frame).
Rare broadside printing of a powerful and well-reasoned argument in favor of the separation of church and state. In 1829, the question of whether or not the mail should be delivered on Sundays became a political issue, with memorials introduced in the U.S. House seeking to end the practice in order to show proper respect for the Sabbath. This rare broadside prints the report of the House Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, chaired by Democratic-Republican Rep. Richard Mentor Johnson, who would go on to serve as Martin Van Buren's Vice President. Johnson, a Baptist, recognizes that Christians view Sundays as holy, that Jews also object to mail delivery on their Sabbath day, and that other Americans "believe that no one day of the week is holier than another." However, he cites the Constitution's prohibition of religious tests, and the first amendment, to assert that the question is not to be decided by the legislature due to the clear separation of church and state. Johnson writes: "If Congress shall, by the authority of law, sanction the measure recommended, it would constitute a legislative decision of a religious controversy, in which even Christians themselves are at issue. However suited such a decision may be to an ecclesiastical council, it is incompatible with a republican legislature, which is purely for political and not religious purposes."
The attractive woodcut in the upper margin of the broadside shows a handsome carriage being drawn by four horses, carrying a group of well-dressed men and women, perhaps on their way to Sunday church services. As far as we can see, the carriage is not carrying any mail. This broadside is not listed in OCLC. We are able to locate only one institutional copy, at the Library of Congress. The last copy that we can find at auction sold at Swann Galleries in 1990. Rare. AMERICAN IMPRINTS 5104. $950
Accounts of Utah Territory: 1 of 100 Copies Printed
96. [Utah]: Calkin, Asa: GENERAL REPORT OF THE AUDITOR OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS FOR THE TERRITORY OF UTAH: PRESENTED TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY DECEMBER 18, 1854. Great Salt Lake City: Joseph Cain, Public Printer, 1854. 8pp., on a folded folio sheet. A bit dusty, a few old creases, else near fine. In a folding cloth chemise and half morocco and cloth slipcase, spine gilt.
An early Utah imprint, one of 100 copies printed. Asa Calkin, auditor of Utah Territory's public accounts, reports on monies spent and monies to be collected, including delinquencies due to nonpayment. He notes that county taxes have brought in nearly $8000 dollars, but that the Territory as a whole shows a delinquency of more than $19,000. Costs include $1250 for roads and bridges in Ogden and Weber, more
than $2000 to the Tithing Office, $173.28 for the Arsenal; $867.39 for Indian Expeditions, more than $450 for the Library, etc. The least amount spent was $6, for Criminals. Calkin also complains about the tardy reporting of various Territorial officers, such as those of the University, which makes his job more difficult. Exasperated, he goes so far as to suggest imposing penalties on those who are late in reporting. This was Calkin's third and final auditor's report. He left Salt Lake City for the British Mission in 1855. Not in Flake. OCLC locates seven copies, at The New York Public Library, the Huntington Library, Brigham Young University, Utah State, Yale, the University of Utah, and Princeton. There are also copies at the Library of Congress, the Bancroft Library, and the Church History Library in Salt Lake City. An interesting report on finances, including internal improvements, in Utah, also disclosing the somewhat disorganized state of affairs in the early Territorial government. McMURTRIE, UTAH 24. CRAWLEY 938. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS UTAH EXHIBITION (1947), 228. DECKER 47:251. EBERSTADT 167:482. OCLC 41315083, 702365009, 8069755. $1,500
97. Wagner, Henry R.: THE SPANISH SOUTHWEST 1542-1794 AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY. Berkeley: [James J. Gillick & Co.], 1924. [8],302,[2]pp., including full-page and in- text illustrations, plus tipped-in printed note. Folio. Original burgundy cloth. Corners bumped, spine ends lightly worn. Very good.
Axe notes that despite the limitation statement of 100 copies, there were actually 116 copies printed (twenty of which were bound in vellum and with extra-illustrations). The first edition of one of Wagner's earliest bibliographies, following on the heels of THE PLAINS AND THE ROCKIES, and a seminal work in the history of books on the Spanish Southwest. This copy includes the leaf of corrections and additions and subscribers to the work, issued a few months after publication and bound in at the end of the text. It also includes the later-issued leaf reproducing part of a 1737 memorial of Rodero, bound in between pages 200 and 201. An essential work from the grand old man of Western bibliography. AXE, PUBLISHED WRITINGS OF HENRY R. WAGNER, 26. WEBER, CALIFORNIA BIBLIOGRAPHIES 252 (later ed.). $850
Presentation Copy
98. [Wagner, Henry R.]: IRISH ECONOMICS: 1700-1783 A BIBLIOGRAPHY WITH NOTES. London: J. Davy & Sons, 1907. [4],94,[1]pp. Contemporary half diced sheep and green cloth, front board and spine gilt. Cloth and backstrip quite rubbed, worn at joints and chipped at spine ends. Fine internally and very good overall.
A presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper by Henry Wagner to Willard O. Waters, a bibliographer at the Library of Congress and later "special assistant" for Americana at the Huntington Library. Henry Wagner's first published bibliography, using his own collection as well as that of the British Library and a few other British and Irish collections as the basis. Wagner's own collection was later placed at Yale University. Privately printed in an edition of some 125 copies. AXE, PUBLISHED WRITINGS OF HENRY R. WAGNER, 4. $250
Illustrating the G.I. Experience in World War Two
99. Wakefield, B.: MY ACHING BACK. [N.p., n.d., ca. 1946]. [2],73 leaves, printed on rectos only. Illustrated throughout. Contemporary three quarter grey cloth and red paper boards. Contemporary ownership signature on front board. Thirty-six names and addresses in ink on front and rear endpapers. Minor shelfwear. Very good.
An unrecorded volume of cartoons illustrating army life during World War Two, and the experiences of a unit from basic training to shipping out to England, participating in D-Day, and after. Wakefield was a member of the 710th Engineer Base Depot Company, which fought at Normandy, northern France, and in the Rhineland. As with any humor, and especially military humor, the effectiveness is based in the truth and commonality of the observations. Wakefield's illustrations are simple and evocative, with brief, witty captions. Included are sketches of the life of a G.I. from volunteering (after a nightmare of being drafted) to basic training and camp life (the bulk of the volume), sailing to England and adventures there, landing at Utah Beach, and longing to be home. This copy has been signed by three dozen members of the 710th, who also note their addresses. It bears the ownership signature on the front board of Chester Keeler, a member of the company. No copies are located in OCLC. $250
100. Washington, Booker T.: [TYPED LETTER, SIGNED, FROM BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, ON TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE LETTERHEAD, TO ISABELLE HINCKLEY OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, EXPLAINING THAT HIS VIEWS ON RACE RELATIONS ARE BEST FOUND IN HIS PUBLISHED WRITINGS]. Tuskegee, Al. April 14, 1901. [1]p. typed letter, signed, on a quarto sheet. Slight chipping in three of the corners and along the left edge, upper edge reinforced on verso with a narrow strip of making tape, else very good.
Typed letter, signed in manuscript, from Booker T. Washington, on the letterhead of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. The typed text of the letter contains a minor manuscript correction, also in Washington's hand. He writes Mrs. Isabelle Hinckley of St. Paul, Minnesota, who apparently wrote Washington asking for his thoughts on race relations. He refers her to his two published works, his recently-published autobiography, UP FROM SLAVERY, and his earlier, THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO, writing that "I prefer to state my position in my published writings." Alluding to the complexity of his views, (and seemingly to his growing renown), he adds that "it is manifestly impossible as you will readily see for me to take up specific cases of this kind for discussion." $425
One of 100 Copies, With an Extra Portfolio of Illustrations
101. Watson, Douglas S.: CALIFORNIA IN THE FIFTIES. FIFTY VIEWS OF CITIES AND MINING TOWNS IN CALIFORNIA AND THE WEST, ORIGINALLY DRAWN ON STONE BY KUCHEL & DRESEL AND OTHER EARLY SAN FRANCISCO LITHOGRAPHERS. San Francisco: John Howell, 1936. [212]pp., including fifty full-page illustrations from lithographs. Errata slip. Oblong folio. Original three quarter morocco and cloth, gilt leather label affixed to front board. Boards very lightly shelfworn. Near fine. In plain dustwrapper (torn at spine ends and folds. [with:] Portfolio containing an additional fifty plates, titlepage, and plate list. Oblong folio. Original cloth portfolio, gilt paper label affixed to front board. Portfolio lightly sunned and worn. Plates fine.
One of 100 copies printed on Alexandra Japan paper, with an accompanying portfolio containing an extra suite of fifty plates, from a total edition of 1000 copies. This copy lacks the original newspaper and document or letter from the period, called for on the colophon for this special edition.
An outstanding work, bringing together views of California cities, towns, and mining camps in the decade following the gold discovery. Six of the views show towns in Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. The story of how this volume came to be is fairly remarkable. Henry Kenitzer, a San Francisco architect of the 1850s and 1860s had his office near many of the city's lithographic firms. He was friends with these artists, and they apparently gave Kenitzer proof copies (before the printing of titles and imprints) of their work. Kenitzer kept these prints hidden in a combination desk and bookcase, and they remained hidden for three generations, until discovered by the family that inherited the furniture. Each illustration has an accompanying page of explanatory text by Douglas Watson. The typography for the book was designed by Edwin Grabhorn, though it was not printed by the Grabhorns. Instead, the printing and "lithotones" are
by A. Carlisle & Company, the successors to the prolific San Francisco printing firm of Britton & Rey, who were responsible for many of the originals depicted herein. HOWES W164. DEAK, PICTURING AMERICA 699 (note). $750
102. Wheat, Carl I.: THE MAPS OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD REGION 1848-1857 A BIBLIO- CARTOGRAPHY OF AN IMPORTANT DECADE. San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1942. xlii,152,[1]pp., plus twenty-six maps (sixteen folding and ten in color). Folio. Original tan linen boards and light brown cloth backstrip, printed paper spine label. Backstrip cloth lightly faded, else fine.
The indispensable work on the subject, with informed descriptions and high-quality reproductions of several of the maps. Handsomely printed in an edition of 300 copies by the Grabhorn Press. One of the "Fifty Books of the Year." GRABHORN BIBLIOGRAPHY 368. HOWES W312, "b." $850
One of the Earliest Proposals for a Transcontinental Railroad
103. Wilkes, George: PROJECT OF A NATIONAL RAILROAD FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN, FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING A SHORT ROUTE TO OREGON AND THE INDIES. New York: Published by the Author, 1845. 23pp. Original printed yellow wrappers. Wrappers very lightly soiled, faint vertical crease. Light, scattered foxing. Very good. In a cloth chemise and half morocco and cloth slipcase, spine gilt.
"Second edition," but the first separate printing, having also appeared as a chapter of Wilkes's HISTORY OF OREGON, published earlier the same year. This is the second issue, with the preface dated November, 1845 (the first issue preface is dated June, 1845).
One of the earliest proposals for a transcontinental railroad, propounded by a crusading journalist who was also active in putting forth the case for American possession of Oregon. At the time Wilkes espoused this plan California was still part of Mexico, and so he proposed Oregon as the western destination for the railroad. Wilkes gives a description of the Oregon Territory, and discusses the advantages of the railroad as a route for American commerce to the East Indies. He warns that European nations are working on finding a trans-Isthmian route in order to gain access to Asian markets, and argues that for the United States the choice is between expansion and growth, or stagnation and decline. As opposed to later plans, Wilkes proposed a railroad that would be under national, public control, with tolls sufficient to pay its expenses, and not a corporate monopoly. "One of the earliest transcontinental agitations, framed while California was still a Mexican province, an Oregon terminus was planned" - Howes. Not in Soliday, nor in the Decker catalogues. An early, visionary argument for a transcontinental railroad. HOWES W419, "b." SABIN 103999. RAILWAY ECONOMICS, p.288. WAGNER-CAMP 119 (note). COWAN (1914 ed), p.249. EBERSTADT 113:593. $1,750
Eccentric Account of the Gold Rush
104. Willcox, R.N.: REMINISCENCES OF CALIFORNIA LIFE. BEING AN ABRIDGED DESCRIPTION OF SCENES WHICH THE AUTHOR HAS PASSED THROUGH IN CALIFORNIA, AND OTHER LANDS. WITH QUOTATIONS FROM OTHER AUTHORS. A SHORT LECTURE ON PSYCHIC SCIENCE. AN ARTICLE ON CHURCH AND STATE: WRITTEN BY HIS SON; R.P. WILLCOX. Avery, Oh.: Willcox Print, 1897. [2],290pp. Original black pebbled cloth, spine gilt. Cloth lightly rubbed and shelfworn. Text lightly tanned, but very clean and neat internally. Very good.
A little-known, scarce, and valuable account of the Gold Rush. Willcox was an apprentice carpenter in Mystic River, Connecticut at the time news of the California gold discoveries began to spread. He sailed
from New York to Panama on January 20, 1852, crossed the Isthmus, and arrived in San Francisco in a very quick thirty-three days after his departure from New York. He gives a good description of crossing Panama and of life in San Francisco and the mines, writing in elaborate detail of the mining camps, outlaw bands, gambling saloons, opium dens, California cattle and agriculture, Vigilance organizations, Indian troubles, and more. Willcox worked as a carpenter and got a job building a bridge over the American River, a sawmill, and a quartz mill. "Somewhat rambling in his recollections, Willcox describes Chinese miners, hydraulic mining, wagon roads, quicksilver mining, and general resources of California" - Kurutz. "His vivid portrayal of mining life in California, from 1850 on is of deep interest. In it he depicts in details the rowdyism, hardships and Indian troubles that best the early miners. A source book of real value" - Norris catalogue.
The Graff copy notes the presence of a frontispiece portrait, but Howes asserts that the portrait was printed circa 1901 and only inserted into some copies. The Streeter copy did not contain the portrait, nor does the present copy. Howes notes that not over 100 copies were printed, but Ernest Wessen (who called it a "very rare book") wrote that "one who is said to have participated in the printing of this book has assured your cataloguer that less than seventy-five copies were issued" (MIDLAND NOTES). While rather plentiful in library holdings, this book is scarce on the market. KURUTZ 681. COWAN, p.684. ROCQ 16163. WHEAT, GOLD RUSH 228. HOWES W436, "aa." FLAKE 9865. NORRIS CATALOGUE 4228. STREETER SALE 3024. GRAFF 4673. ADAMS, HERD 2520. ADAMS, SIX- GUNS 2394. HOWELL 50:933. MIDLAND NOTES 3:82. $1,000
105. Wiltsee, Ernest A.: GOLD RUSH STEAMERS OF THE PACIFIC. San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1938. x,[2],367,[1]pp., plus twenty-six plates (including frontispiece), some printed on both sides. Map-illustrated endpapers. Original brick cloth boards and tan cloth back, printed paper spine label. A very faint old stain in the upper outer corner of the frontispiece, titlepage, and following two leaves. A handsome copy, in near fine condition.
Still one of the primary works on the subject, giving an engaging and informed history of the Pacific steamships of the period 1848-1869. With much on the Pacific Steamship Company, Commodore Vanderbilt's Nicaragua Steamship Company, and the competition between the two lines. One of 500 copies, printed and sold by the Grabhorn Press. GRABHORN BIBLIOGRAPHY 293. WHEAT, GOLD RUSH 232. ROCQ 12870. $250
Records of One of the Most Exclusive Clubs in New York, 1 of 100 Copies
106. [Zodiac Club]: RECORDS OF THE ZODIAC AS THEY APPEAR IN THE MINUTE BOOKS 1868 - 1915. New York: Privately Printed, 1916. xv,[1],335,[9]pp., plus numerous portraits and two colored plates, including frontispiece. Half title. Quarto. Original half cloth and paper-covered boards, front board stamped with gilt insignia, gilt morocco spine labels. Front hinge a bit weak, bifolium containing the Honorary Retired List and the first leaf of the Minutes loosely laid in, else near fine. In the original green cloth dustjacket, gilt (jacket with slight edgewear and tears at the spine ends).
From an edition of 100 copies, said to have been printed for the Zodiac Club by Charles Scribner and Sons, with type designed by Tiffany & Company. A second volume of the club's history appeared in 1928.
A magnificent artifact of a club founded in New York City during the Gilded Age, which continues to this day, and for whose dozen members the Gilded Age has never ended. This work records nearly fifty years of dinner meetings held by a club consisting of the financial and power elite of New York. The Zodiac Club was founded in 1868 by Civil War General Edward Elmer Potter and consisted of twelve of the wealthiest men in New York, men who wanted to socialize and enjoy food, wine, and gossip of the
highest order. The twelve members were (and are) each named after a sign of the zodiac. Among the members were J.P. Morgan and his son, J.P. Morgan, Jr., politicians J. Hampden Robb and Nelson Aldrich, lawyers Joseph H. Choate and Lewis Cass Ledyard, coal magnate James Clendenin, and a number of military veterans.
This volume prints the constitution of the club, which calls for meetings on the final Saturday of each month from November through April, and also lists the names of the forty men who have been members to date. The menus and wine lists of 272 meetings are carefully recorded, and there are also brief notes on the business that was conducted and the cost of the meal. The Zodiac Club met at a variety of locations, usually at the Knickerbocker Club and the Union Club, but also including the Delmonico's and the private apartment of restauranteur Louis Sherry. The menu for each meeting was arranged by a "caterer" chosen from among the club members, each of whom tried to outdo the others in terms of lavishness. Members of the club contributed the wines. The records of the Zodiac Club thereby also allow us to chart tastes in food and wine at the highest levels in Victorian America.
This copy bears the bookplate of George Selleck on the front pastedown, and laid in is a typed note dated 1974 to Selleck from Porter Sesnon, as well as photocopies of five pages of documents. Selleck and Sesnon appear to have been members of a West Coast version of the Zodiac Club, founded in 1963 and emulating the original New York club. OCLC locates ten copies (six of those in New York institutions) of this first volume of the history of the Zodiac Club. OCLC 7013680, 228711432. $2,250