1853 · Washington
by Stansbury, Howard
Washington: Robert Armstrong, 1853. 495pp. plus fifty-seven plates (some folding) and folding map, with two additional large folding maps bound into a separate volume. Original blindstamped cloth, spine of text volume gilt, front board of map volume gilt. Spine of text volume faded, cloth of both volumes lightly worn. Bookplate on front pastedown of text volume. Scattered foxing. Small tears in both large maps; tears in lower portion of map affixed to front board. Very good. Third issue, after the Philadelphia and London issues of 1852. This work is a report of the first extensive survey of the Great Basin, and a major landmark in the cartography of the American West, based on surveys made by Stansbury in 1849 and 1850. One of the large maps, "Map of the Great Salt Lake and adjacent country in the Territory of Utah," permanently established the topography and place names of northern Utah. The other large "Map of a reconnoissance between Ft. Leavenworth, on the Missouri River, and the Great Salt Lake in the Territory of Utah...," showing the overland trail, was based on the work of Stansbury, Gunnison, Preuss, and Carrington. See Wheat for an exhaustive discussion. This account is also important as a pioneering botanical study of the Great Basin. HOWES S884. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 764, 765, 766. WAGNER-CAMP 219:3. MINTZ 433. FLAKE 8360. GRAFF 3947 (1852 ed). FIELD 1490 (1852 ed). SABIN 90372. TAXONOMIC LITERATURE 1279. REESE, BEST OF THE WEST 127 (ref).
(Inventory #: WRCAM28770D)