September 2018 New Acquisitions (Item 5) Fairbanks in the Aftermath of the Klondike Gold Rush, Only Two Other Copies Located 1. [Alaska]: ALASKA SOUVENIR HARMONIE FAIRBANKS, FEBRUARY 13, 1909 [wrapper title]. [Fairbanks, Ak. 1909]. [32]pp., profusely illustrated. Oblong octavo. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Wrappers lightly worn and soiled. One page with contemporary manuscript notes. Center bifolium loosening a bit from the sstaples. Very good. A rare visual tour of Fairbanks, Alaska, issued by the Harmonie Society, which was founded in Fairbanks in 1907 "for the purpose of fostering German language, song and good fellowship." The volume contains nearly two dozen illustrations from photographs of Fairbanks and surroundings, including mining scenes, images of prospectors, gold bricks from the Tanana District, the mining town of Dome City, scenes in town and in the wild, and an image of the fire that tore through Fairbanks on May 22, 1906. There are also a number of advertisements for local Fairbanks businesses of all sorts. Reaching out to the five hundred-odd German residents of Fairbanks, the Harmonie Society not only put on singing performances, but also planned to add literary events and a turnverein festival. This is the only copy appearing in Rare Book Hub auction records (having previously appeared in 2012), and the only copy I have found in the market. Not in Tourville or Wickersham. OCLC locates only a single copy, at the Alaska State Library, and there is also a copy at Yale. Rare. OCLC 271244608. $900 Rare Wyoming Brand Book 2. [Brand Book]: CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS AND BRAND DIRECTORY OF THE ALBANY COUNTY CATTLE AND HORSE GROWERS ASSOCIATION. Laramie: The Laramie Republican Company, 1912. 90,[i.e. 91]pp., including illustrations. Followed by [114] blank pages. Narrow 24mo. Original printed grey wrappers. Front and rear wrappers torn at outer corners, front wrapper also with tears in lower edge and foredge. Very clean and neat internally. Overall, very good. In a folding cloth clamshell box, gilt leather spine label. Apparently the only edition of this scarce brand book for Wyoming's Albany County Cattle and Horse Growers Association. The constitution and by-laws comprise the first seven pages of text, followed by scores of illustrations of cattle and horse brands for Wyoming ranchers. The ranch names are given, as is the location of their range - still a touchy subject among Wyoming cattlemen twenty years after the Johnson County War. More than one hundred blank pages follow the main text, presumably meant for notes or illustrations by a contemporary owner. OCLC locates three copies, at the Univ. of Wyoming, Princeton, and the Univ. of Arizona. The record for the copy at Wyoming notes ninety-four pages, the other three apparently containing "corrected and additional information" pasted into the book. The present copy is the only one that I have found in the market. OCLC 81365312, 9847001. $1,250 A Woman’s Narrative of Her Childhood in Western Kansas, With Two Letters from the Author Laid In 3. Bryson, Nettie Korb: PRAIRIE DAYS [with:] [TWO AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, SIGNED, FROM NETTIE KORB BRYSON LAID IN]. Los Angeles: Times Mirror, [1939]. [10],171,[4]pp., plus portrait and ten plates. [3]pp. autograph letters, signed, laid in. Mid-twentieth century red morocco, ruled in gilt, spine gilt, raised bands, gilt inner dentelles, t.e.g. Previous owner's signature and ink stamp on a front fly leaf. Fine. Signed by Nettie Korb Bryson on the verso of the frontispiece. The two autograph letters, signed, from Nettie Bryson are dated in October, 1940, and were written to the collector Carl Melugin, the original owner of this copy, and the person who had it bound in red morocco. In the letter of October 4 she writes in response to Melugin's inquiry about the contents of the book (misspellings corrected): "It is a small out line of early days in Kansas, and my family & others pioneering there in 1870, and some experiences buffalo hunting etc. etc....Thank you for your interest. Most all libraries and colleges, as well as historic societies have ordered copies. Do hope you decide you too must own one." She also mentions that the book has "good large print on good paper, cloth bound, and easy to read if one likes history & adventure," and that it costs one dollar per copy, but cheaper by the dozen. In the second letter, dated October 13, she thanks Melugin for his order, wonders where he heard about the book, and informs him that she will send his copy along shortly. Clearly, evidence that Mrs. Bryson not only financed the publication of the book, but also provided fulfillment services and some measure of publicity as well. The text tells the story of Nettie Korb Bryson's family, her German-immigrant father and Scotch-Irish mother who met and married in Iowa, the beginnings of their family there and eventual move to Bull City (now Alton), Kansas in 1870. Includes information on their involvement in the Seventh Day Adventist faith, encounters with local Indian tribes, buffalo hunts, the Grasshopper Plague of 1874, and life as homesteaders in small prairie settlements. An engaging memoir of nineteenth-century life on the Kansas plains, handsomely bound and with two letters from the author laid in. $275 Rare Guide to the Philippines by an American Woman 4. Burkholder, Seddie L.: A DAY IN MANILA. Manila: Times Press, [1924]. xiv,71,xv-xxviii pp. 12mo. Original pictorial stiff wrappers and green cloth backstrip. Contemporary ownership signature and address on front free endpaper. Binding slightly stressed at two interior points, else fine. A rare guide to Manila in the 1920s, written and published by an enterprising American woman who knew the city and the Philippines well. Seddie Laura Burkholder also wrote and self-published A DAY IN CANTON in 1907, and later studies of the shells and flowers of the Philippines. Burkholder lived in Manila for more than two decades, and in the present work she provides a thorough guide to the city and the surrounding country. Directed toward tourists, she recounts the history of Manila and the old city, and describes churches, the aquarium, marketplaces, museums, Chinatown, parks, and cockfights. She also gives information on venturing to the outskirts of Manila and to surrounding towns and villages. More than two dozen pages of advertisements give a very good glimpse into the commercial life of Manila some twenty-five years after the American conquest. No copies of this guide to Manila are recorded in OCLC. $250 Iconic Image of a Gold Hunter on His Way to California 5. [California Gold Rush]: THE INDEPENDENT GOLD HUNTER ON HIS WAY TO CALIFORNIA. I NEITHER BORROW NOR LEND. New York & Hartford: Kelloggs & Comstock, [ca. 1849-1852]. Hand-colored lithograph, 14 x 10 inches. Neat repairs on verso to the lower margin and upper corners of the sheet. Minor marginal soiling on the recto. Near fine. (See illustration on front page) An iconic image of the California Gold Rush, showing a well-dressed and well-equipped argonaut, just setting off on the overland journey to the gold fields of California. The "independent gold hunter" is shown walking across the prairie, some 350 miles west of St. Louis and 1700 miles from California. His clothes are clean, and his hair and beard are neatly trimmed. He wears a frock coat, knee-high black leather boots, and a large kettle for a hat. In a lower coat pocket are several knives and a pistol, and in an upper pocket is a flask. He smokes a cigarette, carries a small suitcase in his left hand, and his right hand holds a long stick on top of his right shoulder. From the stick hang sausages, small fish, and a tea kettle. Also seen dangling from him are the tools of his future trade: a gold mining pan, a shovel, and scales. This copy is beautifully colored in muted tones of blue, green, grey, and tan. This lithograph was issued by two different publishers: Kelloggs & Comstock of Hartford (with D. Needham of Buffalo listed as co-publisher), and by the famed firm of Currier & Ives of New York. The Currier & Ives issue is likely the first; either issue is quite scarce. Not in Vail's GOLD FEVER, though he does list several Gold Rush prints, nor was a copy featured in the 1999 Huntington Library exhibit, "Land of Golden Dreams." A copy of the present issue sold at auction earlier in 2018 for $3900, and before that Rare Book Hub lists no copies at auction since the sale of prints from the stock of Edward Eberstadt & Sons in 1967. OCLC locates only a single copy of this issue, at the American Antiquarian Society. There are also copies at the California State Library, the Beinecke Library, the Oakland Museum of California, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. PETERS, CALIFORNIA ON STONE, p.140 & plate 69. FINLAY, PICTURING VICTORIAN AMERICA, 434. OCLC 191117340. $2,650 San Franciscans Celebrate the Fourth of July 6. [California Pictorial Letter Sheet]: VIEW OF THE PLAZA OF SAN-FRANCISCO, ON THE 4th OF JULY 1851. [San Francisco]: Publ. & Lith. by Justh Quirot & Co., [1851]. Pictorial letter sheet, 9 x 11¼ inches on green wove paper. Light edgewear, with a few small chips. Half-inch tear with no paper loss intruding into the upper part of the image, small chip out of upper left corner. Very good overall. "A splendid, teeming scene of San Franciscans patriotically painting the town red during their first celebration of Independence Day after attaining statehood. Several firefighting companies are shown with their engines" - Clifford catalogue.