Catalogue 256
Western Americana
Section IV: Hahn to Lester
Papers on Book Collecting by William S. Reese
Currents
"Perhaps the most important
– Who Was Who in American Art
California landscape and genre
painter of the 1870s and ’80s"
84. Hahn, William (Carl Wilhelm): [SKETCHBOOK OF ARTIST WILLIAM HAHN, CONTAINING PENCIL DRAWINGS OF CALIFORNIA AND UTAH DURING THE MID-1870s, AND INCLUDING SCENES OF THE AMERICAN EAST]. [ca. 1876]. Forty-nine pages of pencil sketches, plus sketches on front and rear pastedowns. Quarter leather and cloth oblong sketchbook, the pages measuring 10¾ x 14¾, and numbered 1-65 in pencil on upper page corners, the last page unnumbered. Lacks spine. Signatures and some pages loose. The images, occasionally lightly soiled, are overall in very good condition, quite suitable for display. In a cloth clamshell case, leather label.
This large, oblong folio sketchbook documents the work of an important painter of California and the West, William Hahn. Said by Who Was Who in American Art to be "[p]erhaps the most important California landscape and genre painter of the 1870s-80s," Hahn (1829, Ebersbach, Saxony, Germany – 1887, Dresden, Germany) first came to the United States in 1871, painting in Boston with his friend, landscape painter William Keith. Within a year, the two artists relocated and opened a studio in San Francisco’s Mercantile Library Building. By 1876, Hahn was a dominant figure in California art, residing in the elegant rooms of the Bohemian Club, director and major exhibitor of the San Francisco Art Association, and one of the best-selling artists at the Mechanics Institute Fairs.
This sketchbook documents Hahn’s cross-country trip from San Francisco to the East Coast in 1876, and includes sharp images of hard-scrabble ranch life in the high Sierra Nevada, the terrain around Salt Lake City, and excellent images of Niagara Falls. It also contains a preliminary drawing for one of Hahn’s most famous paintings, "Return from the Bearhunt," completed in 1882, and now hanging in the Oakland Museum.
"The best of William Hahn’s paintings accurately depict the characteristic details of a typical occurrence and its participants and, most importantly, reflect the human condition of that incident" – Neubert. With most of Hahn’s paintings and sketches of the American West long ago secured and prominently displayed in museum collections (Oakland Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, etc.), these extremely interesting on-the-spot Hahn sketches represent a rare opportunity in the art market to obtain the working drawings of a chronicler of the West who, says Neubert, "brings the viewer back in time and directly to the scene."
A detailed list of the sketches, most full-page and some annotated in the artist’s hand, is available upon request.
Marjorie Dakin Arkelian & George W. Neubert, William Hahn. Genre Painter 1829-1887 (Oakland, Ca.: Oakland Museum, Art Department, 1976), passim, figures 59, 60, 61. Who Was Who in American Art II, p.1419. Edan Milton Hughes, Artists in California 1786-1940 (San Francisco: Hughes Publishing, 1986), pp.192-93. $20,000.
Teenage Sailor in Hawaii and the Arctic
85. Hall, Daniel Weston: ARCTIC ROVINGS: OR, THE ADVENTURES OF A NEW BEDFORD BOY ON SEA AND LAND. Boston. 1861. 171pp. plus [4]pp. of ads. Portrait. 12mo. Original blindstamped cloth, spine stamped in gilt, neatly rebacked with the original backstrip laid down. Gift inscription on front free endpaper. Very good, internally clean.
A scarce account of a teenager’s adventures at sea, including Pacific whaling experiences and visits to Hawaii and Siberia. During a three-month stay in Honolulu, Hall witnessed a volcanic eruption and planned his escape from the cruel captain of the whale ship, Condor. After some whaling adventures in the Pacific, Hall deserted ship along the coast of Siberia, near the bank of the Oudskoi River. He was eventually rescued as a result of his father’s efforts back home in New Bedford. One of the reasons Hall published this work was to call the public’s attention to the severe punishments suffered by seamen, especially in the whaling fleet, and to encourage the reform of discipline at sea. Includes a chapter entitled "Peep at the Whale Fisheries." Not in Hill nor, apparently, Arctic Bibliography. SABIN 29745. FORSTER 469. FORBES HAWAII 2422. $2750.
The Hawaiian Constitution of 1852
86. [Hawaii]: CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF HIS MAJESTY KAMEHAMEHA III., KING OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, PASSED BY THE NOBLES AND REPRESENTATIVES AT THEIR SESSION, 1852. Honolulu. 1852. 88pp. Dbd. A few leaves at rear lightly tanned. A very good copy. In a half morocco box.
This rare volume prints the full text of the newly-created Constitution and the laws passed in 1852 for the kingdom of Hawaii. The constitution, which was written by a three-man committee in 1851, revises the 1840 constitution and includes 105 articles, the first of which echoes the language of the American Declaration of Independence regarding human liberty. The 1852 Constitution heavily liberalized the structure of the Hawaiian government compared to the 1840 constitution, introducing new elements of democracy into the government and reducing the influence of the monarch in kingdom affairs. The text spells out the frame of government of the islands, including the powers of the King and his ministers, the legislature, governors, and the courts. Also included here are the session laws passed by the legislature in 1852, including a law removing the poll tax for women, the establishment of a fire department, several harbor and shipping regulations, a law relating to stallions, a prohibition from selling liquor on Sundays, and a law prohibiting the carrying of deadly weapons. Uncommon and quite interesting. FORBES 1868. JUDD, LAWS OF HAWAII, p.3. CARTER, p.108. $6500.
87. Hebard, Grace Raymond, and E.A. Brininstool: THE BOZEMAN TRAIL. HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS OF THE BLAZING OF THE OVERLAND ROUTES INTO THE NORTHWEST, AND THE FIGHTS WITH RED CLOUD’S WARRIORS. Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1922. Two volumes. 346; 306pp. including portraits, plus maps (two folding). Frontispiece. Publisher’s red cloth, t.e.g. Previous ownership stamp on front free endpaper of each volume. Near fine.
"This classic Clark title recounts the federal government’s attempt to open a road north from the Oregon Trail through the Powder River country, the hunting grounds of the Sioux, in the late 1860s. Containing previously unpublished narratives, this work has served as a valuable reference tool for students of the Northern Plains" – Clark & Brunet. HOWES H382, "aa." CLARK & BRUNET 115. STREETER SALE 2118. $900.
88. Henry, Alexander: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM ALEXANDER HENRY]. Montreal. July 29, 1802. [1]p. Slight loss of paper caused by removal of wax seal on right margin, not affecting text. Old fold. Else fine.
An excellent autograph letter, signed, from this prominent fur trader, explorer, and author of Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, published in 1809. Henry was sixty-three at the time this letter was written, and mainly occupied with directing fur operations from Montreal. He evidently writes concerning his son’s bad debts:
"My last to you was by last post, was so much hurt by Robert’s behavior that I scarcely remember what I wrote. his Horse and Gigg it is only just that the produce of it should go to pay those Gentm who indorsed his notes – how these Gentm could be persuaded to do such a thing is beyond my comprehension without consulting you. if he is turned loose he may be induced to commit some act worse than what he has already done – therefore if he can get clear of his imposing creditors – send him here as soon as possible – but dont come under any promise to any other to whom he owes only those acted by yr orders."
$1250.
89. Henry, Alexander, and David Thompson: NEW LIGHT ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE GREATER NORTHWEST. THE MANUSCRIPT JOURNALS OF...1799 – 1814. New York. 1897. Three volumes. Three folding maps and folding facsimile in rear pocket of third volume. Portrait. Original green cloth, spines gilt. Save for minute edge wear, a fine set.
The Frank Cutter Deering copy, with his paper bookplates. From an edition limited to 1100 copies. Published by F.P. Harper, and probably the most difficult to obtain of the excellent series issued by that firm. Describes the travels and adventures of both men, mainly in the Canadian Northwest. Edited by Elliott Coues. HOWES H419. TWENEY 89, 9. PEEL 32. WAGNER-CAMP 7 (note). $1250.
90. Hillers, John K.: [PHOTOGRAPH OF PUEBLO LAGUNA]. Pueblo Laguna, N.M. [1880-1881]. Mounted albumen photograph, 33 x 25 cm., on contemporary bristol board. Some dampstaining on mount, small chip in center of photograph. Withal, a fine image.
A fine view of Pueblo Laguna, taken by the important frontier photographer, Jack Hillers, during the Bureau of American Ethnology Expedition of 1880-81. Hillers’ work was made famous by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh in his book, Canyon Voyage. After learning the art of photography from professionals such as E.O. Beaman and James Fennemore (photographers on the early Powell expeditions), Hillers became the official photographer with the Powell expeditions of 1872-76 and 1878, recording many beautiful images in Arizona and southern Utah. He eventually surpassed his instructors in both technique and artistic sense, and this image, from a New Mexico pueblo, reflects his advancing photographic skill. The image is of the pueblo at some distance, but it is nevertheless clear and sharp. "Jack Hillers emerged as an outstanding practitioner of the wet-plate trade" – Goetzmann. Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, pp.560-61. Taft, Photography & the American Scene, pp.288-91. $1500.
91. Hillers, John K.: [PHOTOGRAPH OF PUEBLO TESEQUE]. Pueblo Teseque, N.M. [1880-1881]. Mounted albumen photograph, 33 x 25 cm. On contemporary bristol board. Some dampstaining to mount, but a fine image.
A magnificent view of Pueblo Teseque, taken by the important frontier photographer, Jack Hillers, during the Bureau of American Ethnology Expedition of 1880-81. Hillers’ work was made famous by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh in his book, Canyon Voyage. After learning the art of photography from professionals such as E.O. Beaman and James Fennemore (photographers on the early Powell expeditions), Hillers became the official photographer with the Powell expeditions of 1872-76 and 1878, recording many beautiful images in Arizona and southern Utah. He eventually surpassed his instructors in both technique and artistic sense, and this image, from a New Mexico pueblo, reflects his advancing photographic skill. The photograph is a vivid depiction of a group of Pueblo dwellings. "Jack Hillers emerged as an outstanding practitioner of the wet-plate trade" – Goetzmann. Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, pp.560-61. Taft, Photography & the American Scene, pp.288-91. $1350.
Yachting to the Republic of Texas
92. 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. 16pp. of publisher’s advertisements dated "August 1845" at end of second volume. Ten plates (seven lithographs by Day & Haghe [two portraits and five views], three wood-engraved plates [two signed "SW"]). Frontispiece in each volume. Original dark blue cloth, the flat spines with blocked decoration in blind dividing them into five compartments, blocked lettering in gilt in the second and fourth compartments. Spines slightly faded, extremities slightly bumped. Overall very good.
The author was a wealthy British woman who visited Texas in 1842 on her husband’s private yacht. She visited New Orleans, then sailed along the Gulf Coast, alternating between Texas and New Orleans. Mrs. Houstoun offers commentary on the politics and society of the day, including issues such as slavery and a possible civil war. "...She gives us some exceptional insights into Texas of the 1840’s" – Jenkins. The lithographs are included in Holman and Tyler’s preliminary research on 19th-century Texas lithography. They include portraits of Gen. Santa Anna and President Houston and views of the city of Galveston, Funchal in Madeira, the city of Houston, Havana harbor, and ending with a nighttime view of the Plaza des Armas in Havana. All are wonderfully executed by the British firm of Day & Haghe, lithographers to the Crown. The "alpine" Houston view, while apocryphal, may be the first published view of the city, and the prototype for subsequent views showing the city in the midst of mountains. In addition, there is a fine wood-engraved vignette view of the "Dolphin Yacht in the Mississippi," and two beautifully observed wood-engraved character studies, the first of "Nancy, the Black Woman" and the second of a "New Orleans black dandy." One of the more charming accounts of the Republic of Texas, and other than that of Mrs. Holley, the only one by a woman. BASIC TEXAS BOOKS 97. CLARK III:182. HOWES H693, "aa." RAINES, p.120. SABIN 33202. STREETER TEXAS 1506. SERVIES 3044 (abridged American ed). $4750.
93. [Hughes, W.E.]: THE JOURNAL OF A GRANDFATHER. [Saint Louis? 1912]. 239pp. plus plates. Portrait. Cloth backed boards, t.e.g. Cloth spotted, edge wear, corners bumped. Endpapers browned, else internally fine.
A presentation copy of this privately printed book, limited to an edition of 100 copies, with a warm contemporary presentation inscription from the author. Hughes gives an account of years he spent as a cowboy, ranchman, soldier, and stagecoach driver in the West. He served in the Confederate army during the Civil War under McCulloch, and settled in Young County, Texas. He provides a detailed description of his experiences in the cattle business, as well as a long appraisal of the cattle industry of the late 1800s in Texas; with material on a number of famous cattlemen and ranches, such as Goodnight, Kennedy, and King; and a chapter on Indian depredations, especially those committed by the Kiowas. A trove of Western Americana material. DYKES, COLLECTING RANGE LIFE LITERATURE, p.9 ("very rare"). GRAFF 2007. HOWES C856 (misplaced). $1000.
With the Suppressed Dedication
to Charles IV94. Humboldt, Alexander von: ESSAI POLITIQUE SUR LA ROYAUME DE LA NOUVELLE-ESPAGNE. [with:] ATLAS GEOGRAPHIQUE ET PHYSIQUE DU ROYAUME DE LA NOUVELLE-ESPAGNE. Paris: J.H. Stône for F. Schoell, 1811 [i.e. 1808]-1811. Five octavo text volumes plus large folio atlas. Text: Half titles, 4ll. dedication to King Charles IV of Spain in first volume. Folding engraved map, folding engraved geographical cross-section profile printed in brown. Atlas: Letterpress half title, titlepage, and 4pp. description of the "Cartes Géographiques et Physiques contenus dans l’Atlas Mexicain." Engraved map on two double-page sheets, one double-page sheet with three maps on it, single page with eight maps on it, single page with one map and four graphs on it, four single-page maps, two folding geographical cross-section profiles printed in brown and black, one folding geographical cross-section profile printed in black, one folding geographical cross-section profile printed in brown and black, two single-page views printed in brown, single-page plate of diagrams. Text: Contemporary red half morocco over red/orange paper-covered boards gilt, the flat spines gilt in six compartments, lettered in the second, volume number in the fourth, the others with simple repeat pattern in gilt. Atlas: Red morocco-backed orange paper expertly bound to style using modern half leather over contemporary red/orange paper-covered boards, titled in gilt on spine. Very good.
A fine set of Humboldt’s work on "New Spain": a founding work in the fields of political economy and economic geography, and considered by Howes to be "of superlative California importance." The atlas includes the large, ground-breaking two-sheet map of Mexico and its northern provinces, notable for the cartographic depiction of Texas, the American Southwest, and California. The present copy of the text includes the very rare dedication to the Spanish King. We believe that this is the first recorded copy of the octavo text to include this political dedication.
This set of Humboldt’s Essai politique...de la Nouvelle-Espagne... is notable for its very unusual text volumes. When Humboldt wrote the work, he dedicated it to Charles IV of Spain, who had allowed him to travel freely through the Spanish colonies. Almost concurrently with the book’s initial publication in 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and deposed Charles, installing his own brother, Joseph Bonaparte, on the Spanish throne. Already under suspicion as a Prussian spy (his brother was the Prussian Secretary of State) and only allowed to remain in Paris through the intercession of his scientific friends, Humboldt’s dedication to the abdicated monarch was a monumental gaffe. Publication was stalled for three years, and the dedication leaves were removed from the quarto and octavo text editions when they were published in 1811. Both editions were published by Schoell in Paris with the date of 1811 on the titlepage, though the dedication is dated 1808. The presence of the dedication in this copy of the octavo edition and the absence in this copy of the editor’s "avertissement" (which is dated 1811 and is usually found in this edition), indicates that the text leaves for the octavo edition were actually printed by Schoell in 1808, at the same time he printed the text of the quarto edition. The copy at hand evidently slipped through the cracks and was mistakenly released in 1811 with the dedication leaves, but without the "avertissement." It is the first such copy we have encountered, although we have seen copies of the quarto text edition with the suppressed dedication.
The accompanying Atlas... is regarded as one of the seminal cartographic works of Western Americana. The most important map is Humboldt’s great "Carte Generale du Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne," originally executed by him during his stay in Mexico in 1803-4, and covering two large folio double sheets. Carl Wheat calls it a "truly magnificent cartographic achievement" and concludes that before the explorations of Lewis and Clark, Humboldt’s maps were in the first rank of western cartography. Schwartz and Ehrenberg state that it remained "the standard map of the Great Basin region until Fremont’s explorations 35 years later." Thomas Streeter discusses the map at great length, concluding that "it is without question the best representation of Texas that had thus far appeared." It is certainly one of the seminal maps for Texas and the Southwest. Besides the large map, there is a double-sheet map of the whole North American continent south of 42° latitude, which reiterates Humboldt’s western cartography on a larger scale; and three important maps for the Santa Fe trade illustrating the route from Mexico to Durango, Durango to Chihuahua, and Chihuahua to Santa Fe. Other maps illustrate the Valley of Mexico, and ports and routes in Mexico and across the Isthmus. The atlas concludes with a series of fine geological/physical profiles (most printed in brown) and two excellent views of volcanoes (also in brown).
Humboldt was described by Dibdin as "the most illustrious traveller of his day." With the support of the Spanish Prime Minister, Humboldt managed to gain permission to enter the Spanish colonies of Central and South America, which were effectively closed at the time. He set off with French botanist Bonpland from Marseilles in 1799, and spent five years travelling through Central and South America, during which time he covered some six thousand miles. He then returned to Europe and spent the next twenty-three years recording his experiences, observations, and collections in a series of spectacular works. One of the first of these was the Essai politique..., describing northern New Spain, particularly Mexico and the northern provinces, including California and the American Southwest. Becker calls the work "detailed and thorough, containing much data that had never before appeared in print." "Nothing seems too vast, too varied, too wonderful, or too minute, for the keen eye, penetrating intellect, and unwearied exertions of this extraordinary man. A botanist, zoologist, statistician and philosopher, the genius of this great writer seems to have been peculiarly fitted for surveying the varieties and immensity of the physical world; and he accordingly takes the foremost rank of all the travellers, dead or living" – Dibdin. COWAN, p.296 (ref). GRAFF 2009 (ref). HILL 843 (ref). HOWES H786. PALAU 116974. PHILLIPS ATLASES I:2682. REESE & MILES, CREATING AMERICA 23 (ref). SABIN 33713. SCHWARTZ & EHRENBERG, p.127, plate 139. STREETER SALE 195 (ref). WAGNER-CAMP 7a:2. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 272, 273, 274, 275. $45,000.
Utopias in Texas and Nauvoo
95. [Icarian Community]: [Cabet, Etienne]: COLONIE ICARIENNE AUX ETATS-UNIS D’AMERIQUE. SA CONSTITUTION, SES LOIS, SA SITUATION MATERIELLE ET MORALE APRES LE PREMIER SEMESTRE 1855. Paris: Chez l’Auteur, Janvier 1856. 240pp. Dbd., original rear wrapper present but detached. Quite clean internally, and in very good condition. In a half morocco box.
A scarce French printing of the principles, history, laws, constitution, and status of the Icarian communities in the United States. Founded by Étienne Cabet, the Icarian Community was among the most interesting Utopian experiments in the United States during the 19th century. After an unsuccessful attempt to settle in Texas, the Icarians established themselves in Nauvoo, Illinois, an abandoned Mormon town. After Cabet’s death in 1856, the group splintered, with some of the remaining Illinois group moving to Corning, Iowa. This volume, published in the year of Cabet’s death, offers his description of the community and the principles of its founding and operation, as well as the laws and constitution that governed them. Not in Graff. OCLC locates only eight copies. Scarce. SABIN 9779. HOWES C5, "aa." STREETER SALE 4267. OCLC 23420055. $6000.
Rare Kansas Mission Imprint
96. [Ioway and Sac Mission]: Irvin, S.M. [ed]: SOPHIE RUBETI [wrapper title]. Highland, Ks. 1865. 8pp. Portrait of Sophie Rubeti on front cover. 16mo. Original pictorial self-wrappers. Some minor soiling. Very good.
Sophie Rubeti was the daughter of an Indian woman and French Canadian employee of the American Fur Company who had "sought a home among the western Indians." Her parents died in 1851 and she was taken with her two sisters to the Ioway and Sac mission where she was raised. She became a Presbyterian and died in Highland at the age of eighteen, leaving her small savings to the benefit of Highland College and to "teach little children about Jesus." This rare little pamphlet extols her generosity and solicits further contributions to the fund established by her. The prefatory note is by S.M. Irvin, of Highland, Kansas. Irvin, with William Hamilton, established the Ioway and Sac Mission Press in 1843. Not in Gilcrease-Hargrett, but see pages 236-237 for earlier imprints from this press. OCLC locates four copies, only one in Kansas. Rare. OCLC 19510085. $1000.
97. Ives, Joseph C.: REPORT UPON THE COLORADO RIVER OF THE WEST, EXPLORED IN 1857 AND 1858. Washington. 1861. 131,14,[2],154,[2],30,[2],6,[2],31,[1]pp. plus plates (some colored), maps, and some explanatory leaves for plates. Quarto. Contemporary three-quarter morocco and marbled boards, spine lettered in gilt. Boards scuffed and worn, mostly along backstrip and at corners. Scattered foxing. On the whole a very good copy.
One of the most important and best illustrated army surveys of the American West. The report describes the activities of the expedition on the Colorado in 1857-58 under the command of Ives. Goetzmann calls the book the best of individual army reports, "a long, carefully written journal, consciously literary but with a maximum amount of attention to scientific observation." Wheat is equally lavish in his praise of the maps, applauding the detail and design of the finished work. The primary work on the exploration of the Colorado. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 947. GOETZMANN, pp.379-94. FLAKE 4287. HILL 874. STREETER SALE 177. WAGNER-CAMP 375. HOWES I92. TAXONOMIC LITERATURE 786. SABIN 35308. FARQUHAR, COLORADO 21. $1500.
"One of the best of the maps
to this time" – Streeter
of California98. Jackson, William A.: MAP OF THE MINING DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA. New York: Lambert & Lane, 1851. 38 x 58 cm., in full color. Folded into original brown embossed case with title in gilt on front cover. Text: "Appendix to Jackson’s Map of the Mining Districts of California Bringing Down All the Discoveries Since 1849...," 16pp. Some minor repairs to spine of cloth folder. Some scattered foxing on map and text. Map crisp with fresh color. Overall a fine copy. In a half morocco and cloth slipcase.
Second and best edition, revised and enlarged. In this improved edition the text has been considerably rewritten and enlarged, with sections on new towns including Santa Cruz, Agua Fria, Vallejo, and Martinez. There is also new information on placer mines, silver and lead mines, cinnabar mines, and agriculture. The map is one of the most attractive of all gold rush maps, with the counties all individually colored. Jackson identifies several of the southern mines (which he touts in the text), and it is the only map to name Santa Cruz County "Branciforte." "This map is based on 1850-Jackson, but is much more ornate...Very few changes have been made in the information shown in the northern portion of the gold region, but much additional material has been added in the southern mining region. Marysville and many other valley points have been added" – Wheat. "There are new sections on quartz mines, silver and lead mines, and agriculture. This map shows all the counties from Monterey and Mariposa to the northern boundary, all clearly set off from each other by the color scheme and making this a very handy map to consult. It is one of the best maps of California to this time" – Streeter. Jackson notes in his text on page 15: "We could not advise any one who is doing well at home, to venture to California."
A splendid, large-scale map, scale about 9 to 10 miles to the inch, with exceptional coloring. Kurutz locates only a handful of copies. KURUTZ 358b. WHEAT GOLD REGION 196. STREETER SALE 2665. HOWELL 123. PHILLIPS MAPS, p.185. NORRIS SALE 2386. GRAFF 2178. ROCQ 15877. $20,000.
The British Edition,
with Plates Not in the American99. James, Edwin: ACCOUNT OF AN EXPEDITION FROM PITTSBURGH TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, PERFORMED IN THE YEARS 1819, 1820. BY ORDER OF THE HON. J.C. CALHOUN, SECRETARY OF WAR, UNDER THE COMMAND OF MAJ. S.H. LONG.... London. 1823. Three volumes. vii,[1],344; vii, [1],356; vii,[1],347pp. plus eight plates (two colored), folding profile, and map. Modern half brown morocco and marbled boards, maroon gilt morocco labels. Internally quite clean. Very good, untrimmed.
The first British edition of Long, issued the same year as the American, with a few paragraphs of text not in the latter, and with a different set of plates than in the American edition. The map in this edition combines the eastern and western sections of that of the American edition, but is otherwise identical. It locates many of the rivers on the Great Plains, but badly muddles some headwaters. With Pike and Lewis and Clark, one of the three basic western exploring expeditions of the early period. The British edition is a more handsome example of book production than the American. WAGNER-CAMP 25:2. FIELD 948. ABBEY 650. HOWES J41, "b." STREETER SALE 1784. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 353. SABIN 35683. $5250.
The Rare Albany Edition
100. [Jefferson, Thomas]: AN ACCOUNT OF LOUISIANA, BEING AN ABSTRACT OF DOCUMENTS, IN THE OFFICES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE, AND OF THE TREASURY: PRESENTED TO THE HOUSES OF CONGRESS, IN A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT, ON THE 16th OF NOVEMBER, 1803. Albany: Printed by John Barber, Faust’s Statue..., 1803. 48pp. Modern half morocco and marbled boards. Tanning and foxing, bottom corner of last leaf of text chipped with no loss of text, closed tear at top of titlepage not affecting text, else good.
A rare issue of one of the most important documents of the post-Louisiana Purchase period, first published in Washington the same year (Howes erroneously lists a first edition of 1800). Based on material assembled by Thomas Jefferson, this publication provided basic knowledge of Louisiana to a country hungry to hear about it. This copy does not contain the Appendix..., which was issued separately but sometimes accompanies the main text. Evidently the Appendix... was not available to the printer, who added a note at the end of the text saying that he is unable to obtain a copy and does not even know if it has been printed. HOWES L493. SABIN 42179. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 3615. WAGNER-CAMP 2b:2. $1250.
Indianology
101. Jones, Jonathan H.: A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE APACHE AND COMANCHE INDIAN TRIBES FOR AMUSEMENTS AND GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. PREPARED FROM THE GENERAL CONVERSATION OF HERMAN LEHMANN, WILLIE LEHMANN, MRS. MINA KEYSER, MRS. A.J. BUCHMEYER AND OTHERS.... San Antonio. 1899. 3 preliminary leaves, [9]-235pp. Numerous illustrations in text. Original cloth, gilt-stamped cover and spine. Gilt on spine faded. Some slight spotting. Overall very good.
A nice copy of one of the rarest works on Texas Indians and Indian captivities, usually known by its gilt-stamped cover title, "Indianology." Jones interviewed a number of Texans who were captured by Indians as children, most famous among them being Herman Lehmann, whose experiences as a Comanche captive occupy most of the book. These were later reprinted by A.C. Greene in the book, The Last Captive. All the narratives concern whites held by the Comanches in West Texas in the 1870s and early ’80s. Lehmann’s account is one of the best of its kind. "One of the most remarkable accounts of life among hostile Texas Indians, this is also one of the few surviving accounts of life in nineteenth-century Texas from the Indian point-of-view...He was the last, or almost the last, white captive who was returned and lived to tell of it" – Dobie. A great rarity, with wonderful content. HOWES J232. GRAFF 2246. RADER 2122. DOBIE, p.34. $3000.
The Wyandot Constitution
102. [Kansas]: CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF KANSAS. ADOPTED AT WYANDOT, JULY 29, ’59 [caption title]. [Wyandotte. 1859]. 16pp., printed in double columns. Dbd. Irregularly trimmed in the upper and lower margins, costing much of the final line of text on pp.7-8, and the page number on the final two leaves. Otherwise a very good, clean copy. In a half morocco box.
The very rare Wyandotte printing of the 1859 Kansas constitution, the compromise constitution that brought Kansas into the Union. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 stipulated that Kansas voters would decide the issue of slavery themselves. The first attempt at a constitution for Kansas was made in 1855 in Topeka, followed by those written in Lecompton in 1857 and Leavenworth in 1858. All three of these constitutions took different positions on the issue of slavery in the future state, and none seemed to have the approval of all the voters in the territory. Violence between pro- and anti-slavery factions (led by John Brown, among others) caused much bloodshed in Kansas during these years. The present constitution, approved in Wyandotte (now a part of Kansas City) in 1859, outlawed slavery, but was far less progressive than the Leavenworth constitution, denying suffrage for women, Blacks, and Indians. The constitution sets forth the boundaries of the state, includes a twenty-section Bill of Rights, and lays out the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. It also includes provisions for elections, suffrage, education, the militia, banks and currency, finance and taxation, and much more. It was under this Wyandotte constitution that Kansas became a state in January 1861. American Imprints Inventory for Kansas locates a total of only six copies, and OCLC adds four others. Rare and fundamentally important. AII (KANSAS) 215. SABIN 37024. OCLC 22873936. $6000.
The Best Edition
103. Kendall, George W.: NARRATIVE OF THE TEXAN SANTA FE EXPEDITION. COMPRISING A DESCRIPTION OF A TOUR THROUGH TEXAS, AND ACROSS THE GREAT SOUTHWESTERN PRAIRIES, THE CAMANCHE AND CAYUGA HUNTING GROUNDS, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE SUFFERINGS FROM WANT OF FOOD, LOSSES FROM HOSTILE INDIANS, AND FINAL CAPTURE OF THE TEXANS, AND THEIR MARCH, AS PRISONERS TO THE CITY OF MEXICO. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1856. Two volumes. Original cloth. Spine ends carefully repaired on first volume. Head and toe of spine frayed on second volume. Corners refurbished. Contemporary ownership label and pencil signatures on front endpapers. Bookplate removed from second volume. Moderate to heavy foxing in both volumes, affecting plates and folding map. Old bookseller’s blindstamp on titlepage of each volume. Overall good.
This is the seventh and best edition of the most important work on a decisive event in Texas and southwestern history. The Texan Santa Fe expedition was conceived by Mirabeau B. Lamar in an attempt to open a trade route which would lure away some of the traffic hitherto utilizing the Santa Fe trade, and also to extend his greetings to residents of New Mexico, whom he wished to participate in Texas government as residents of territory claimed by Texas in an act of 1836. Due to poor navigation, faulty planning, and harassment by Indians, the expedition lost most of its momentum. Upon their arrival in New Mexico, the entire force was taken captive under orders of Gov. Manuel Armijo. The prisoners were forcibly marched to Mexico City, and the affair brought relations between Texas, the United States, and Mexico to a boiling point. Those who survived the march and imprisonment were released in April 1842, six and a half months after their capture.
Kendall, editor of the New Orleans Picayune, accompanied the expedition as an observer. With him was Thomas Falconer, who was acting in secret as an agent for the British government. Because of Falconer’s British citizenship, he was among the first prisoners released. This extremely important seventh edition incorporates for the first time an appendix containing excerpts from Falconer’s diary, as well as two additional chapters of text. For this reason, this edition is eminently more desirable than the first edition, and it is much more difficult to acquire. The map, although not a notably accurate one, shows various routes across West Texas. HOWES K75, "b". WAGNER-CAMP 110:10. CLARK III:188. FIELD 818. RADER 2157. RITTENHOUSE 347. SABIN 37360. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 483. GRAFF, FIFTY TEXAS RARITIES 26a. GRAFF 2306. STREETER SALE 398. STREETER TEXAS 1515 (1st ed). $3500.
In Original Wrappers
104. King, Charles: THE FIFTH CAVALRY IN THE SIOUX WAR OF 1876. CAMPAIGNING WITH CROOK. Milwaukee, Wi.: Printed by the Sentinel Company, 1880. [8],133,[1]pp. Original printed wrappers. Spine slightly chipped, minute wear to edges, wrappers a bit browned. Contemporary ownership signature on front and rear wrappers. Internally quite clean. Overall an excellent copy of this rare western classic. In a half morocco and cloth clamshell box.
This is the rare first edition, of which King states in the preface of the 1890 reprint: "Only enough copies were printed to reach the few comrades who rode the grim circuit of the ‘Bad Lands’ in that eventful year, and the edition was long ago exhausted." King was first lieutenant of the Fifth Cavalry, and served through the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition of 1876. His journal of the expedition is one of the most interesting narratives of Indian warfare in the Wyoming and Dakota country ever published. The company left Laramie on June 22 for the purpose of cutting off the Indians on the South Cheyenne line. On July 7 a courier reached them with news of the annihilation of Gen. Custer and his favorite companies of the Seventh Cavalry. The Fifth, with nothing but the clothes they wore and without supply wagons, started in pursuit of the Indians, trailing and fighting them through nearly a thousand miles of country in a period of ten weeks, halting only at the head of the Heart River, when the last ration was gone.
The ownership signature on the rear wrapper appears to be that of J. Hayden Pardee, dated "Fort Reno, I.T. [Indian Territory] 1880." Pardee of the 23rd Infantry served during the Crook Campaign, and his name is underlined on the roster page. HOWES K147, "b." GRAFF 2327. JONES 1607. STREETER SALE 1826. JENNEWEIN 63. $11,500.
The Landmark King Survey
105. [King, Clarence, and others]: REPORT OF THE GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE FORTIETH PARALLEL MADE BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR. [Text:] Washington: Government Printing Office; [atlas:] New York: Julius Bien, [text:] 1878-1877-1870-1877-1871-1876-1880; [atlas: nd, but 1870?]. Eight volumes only (text: seven volumes, quarto [11 7/16 x 9 inches]; atlas: one volume only [of two], oblong folio [19 1/4 x 25 1/8 inches]). Text: numerous maps, plates, and illustrations throughout, some colored, some folding or double-page. Atlas: lithographed throughout, title, one uncolored map, three chromolithographic geological maps, ten lithographic sectional maps showing mining operations, with hand-coloring and color-printing (two double-page). Text: Uniform original blue cloth, titled in gilt on spine. Small tears or scuffing to joints and extremities. Atlas: Original blue half morocco, titled in gilt on upper cover.
With over 4000 pages of text and hundreds of plates, maps, and illustrations, this was a landmark publication in American science and in knowledge of the American West. "As a great and epic feat of exploration and adventure, the King Survey surpassed everything else that had been done in the latter-day West...but the most important result of his adventures was the monographs produced with incredible diligence and insight by King and his staff" – Goetzmann.
An almost complete set of the final reports of the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, better known after its field director, Clarence King, as the King Survey. The reports appeared in seven volumes over a ten-year period, reporting on field work in the American West between 1868 and 1878. This set is lacking only the large separately issued atlas of ten double-sheet geological and topographical maps. It does include the other atlas Atlas Accompanying Volume III On Mining Industry (New York: Julius Bien, [nd]), which includes a series of fascinating large scale cross-sectional maps showing mine workings in the area.
The King Survey, with those of Hayden, Wheeler, and Powell, was one of the great scientific reconnaissances of the American West made in the fifteen years after the Civil War. King himself, called "the best and brightest man of his generation" by his friend, Henry Adams, was a dynamic leader and a brilliant organizer of field research. His survey, stretching from northern California across Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Kansas, provided a physical cross-section of the vast West, already subdued in a military sense, but only beginning to be understood from a scientific perspective. King was accompanied by an expert crew of scientists, as well as the photographer, Timothy O’Sullivan, whose work provides the basis for the lavish illustrations in King’s own Systematic Geology..., the first volume in the set. Other volumes, also extensively illustrated, cover descriptive geology, the mining industry, paleontology, botany, petrography, and O.C. Marsh’s pioneering work on dinosaurs, Odontornithes. Schmeckebier, Publications...of the Surveys, pp.38-40. Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, pp.438-66. REESE, STAMPED WITH A NATIONAL CHARACTER 76. $9000.
106. [King, Thomas Butler]: FIRST ANNUAL REPORT TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY CHARTERED BY THE STATE OF TEXAS. New York: American Railroad Journal Office, 1856. 71pp. Original printed wrappers. Front wrapper detached, spine chipped. Some leaves dampstained. Overall a good copy.
A scarce Texas railroad report, one of the first publications concerning a proposed railroad in Texas. This railroad was chartered by the Legislature of the State of Texas and authorized "to commence a Railroad at a suitable point on the eastern boundary line of the State and thence running by such course as said Company shall decree and determine to be most suitable to El Paso on the Rio Grande." The Legislature also agrees to loan the company $6000 per mile of railroad constructed. HOWES K154, "aa." STREETER SALE 399. EBERSTADT 115:955. $1000.
107. Kohl, Johann G.: KITCHI-GAMI. WANDERINGS ROUND LAKE SUPERIOR. London. 1860. xii,428pp. Illus. Modern three-quarter polished calf and cloth by Bayntun, spine gilt, leather label. A near fine copy.
First British edition. "One of the most exhaustive and valuable treatises on Indian life ever written" – Sabin. "[The work] is wholly the result of personal experience, and one which only the most fervent scientific zeal and earnest self-abnegation, as well as a very high order of intelligence, could produce...[Kohl] endeavored to penetrate the thick veil of distrust, ignorance, and superstition which conceal the mind of the Indian, and learn the innate traverses of thought which give motive to his soul..." – Field. HOWES K247, "aa." SABIN 38215. GRAFF 2354. FIELD 842. TPL 3573. GREENLY, MICHIGAN 89. $1000.
English Edition of
Kotzebue’s Second Voyage108. Kotzebue, Otto von: A NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, IN THE YEARS 1823, 24, 25, AND 26. London. 1830. Two volumes. [8],341,[2]pp. plus three maps (two folding); [4],362pp. Frontispiece in each volume. Contemporary polished calf, ruled in gilt, spines gilt, gilt leather labels. Boards lightly edgeworn, rear board of second volume scuffed. Bookplate on front pastedown of each volume. Minor foxing on titlepages. Very good.
The first English edition of this important voyage, after the first publication in Russian in 1828. Kotzebue’s second voyage to the Pacific, made eight years after his first, combined scientific exploration and discovery with conveying cargo to Kamchatka and furthering the interests of the Russian American Fur Company in Alaska and on the Northwest Coast. The winter of 1824 was spent in California and Hawaii, and the narrative provides an extensive account of the Fort Ross settlement, as well as a description of San Francisco Bay. The expedition also visited Brazil, Chile, the Society Islands, Pitcairn, Micronesia, and Alaska. This is the most important edition of the scarce second narrative of one of the primary Russian explorers of the Pacific. BORBA DE MORAES, p.373. COWAN, p.335. HILL 947. HOWES K259, "b." SABIN 38286. LADA-MOCARSKI 93 (ref). FORBES HAWAII 759. $3000.
With the View of Austin
in the Rare Colored State109. Lawrence, A.B.: HISTORY OF TEXAS, OR THE EMIGRANT’S GUIDE TO THE NEW REPUBLIC, BY A RESIDENT EMIGRANT.... New York. 1845. [5]-275pp. Colored frontispiece. Original calf, spine gilt, expertly rebacked with original backstrip laid down. Occasional light foxing, heavier on titlepage. Overall very good.
Later issue, with a differing title, of a general account of Texas, first issued in 1840. The frontispiece is the first printed view of the town of Austin, and in this copy it is in the rare colored state. Also, in this copy the frontispiece is dated Jan. 1, 1840, as in the first edition; in others it is dated 1844. The text is actually the same as in the 1840 edition, but with a cancel titlepage. Streeter calls this "an important Texas book," noting its coverage of social life, possible openings for emigrants and directions for them, as well as its account of a journey from Houston to Austin in 1840. The book also contains much on agriculture in Texas, with sections on several crops, the uses of bees for pollination and for making wax and honey for export, the introduction of the silk worm, etc. STREETER TEXAS 1361C. RAINES, p.203. HOWES L154, "aa." SABIN 95091. BASIC TEXAS BOOKS 120 (note). $2500.
With Important Illustrations
of Indians in Louisiana110. Le Page du Pratz, Antoine: HISTOIRE DE LA LOUISIANE.... Paris: Chez de Bure [et al], 1758. Three volumes. xvi,358; 441; 451,[3]pp. plus forty engraved plates, two folding maps, folding plan, and errata. Half title in each volume. 16mo. Uniform contemporary mottled calf, maroon gilt morocco labels, ornate gilt spines, raised bands. Slightly rubbed, occasional minute foxing. Contemporary ownership signature on titlepage of each volume. Near fine, in an attractive contemporary binding.
One of the most useful contemporary authorities on French Louisiana, based on the author’s sixteen-year residence there. Jefferson instructed Lewis and Clark to take an edition of the book on their expedition. Le Page du Pratz affords a great deal of useful information on the Natchez and other Mississippi tribes, and his work as a whole has been the basis for many later studies of the period. "...Valuable for showing French claims to southern territory east of the Mississippi and for particulars concerning Indian nations there" – Howes. Of special interest is a short account of Louis de St. Denis’ expedition to New Mexico in 1715. "...A curious mixture of history, travel narrative, tall stories, and reminiscences...touch[ing] upon almost every phase of Louisiana in [the author’s] time..." – Clark. There is a folding plan of New Orleans and a "Carte de la Louisiane," which shows a large eastward-flowing Missouri. HOWES L266, "aa." CLARK I:75. GRAFF 2462. RADER 2219. RAINES, p.73. SABIN 40122. STREETER SALE 127. FIELD 910. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 158. $3000.
First Book on the Ku Klux Klan
111. Lester, J.C., and D.L. Wilson: KU KLUX KLAN. ITS ORIGIN, GROWTH AND DISBANDMENT. Nashville. 1884. 117pp. Later wrappers. Very good.
The first work about the Ku Klux Klan. The so-called first Klan, which operated in the 1860s and ’70s, was composed of former Confederate army officers and was primarily an anti-Reconstructionist, anti-Unionist group. While not exactly warmly disposed to Blacks, as a group it did not espouse the rabid, working class racism, anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism of the later Klan. Lester presents this history as a defense of the Klan’s activities. STREETER SALE 1295. HOWES L272. $1000.
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