1819 · New York
by Schoolcraft, Henry R
New York, 1819. 299pp. plus three engraved plates including frontis. Contemporary marbled boards, neatly rebacked in calf, spine gilt, retaining original leather label. Extensive 19th-century library ink stamps and contemporary ownership signature on titlepage, pasted ink stamp on verso. Light foxing and toning. Good. The first published work of Schoolcraft, notable for his many later works relating to American Indians. His initial training was in geology. In 1817-18 he undertook an expedition to southern Missouri and northern Arkansas to examine the lead mines there, which had been described in print by Moses Austin twenty years earlier. His book is the first detailed description of the Ozark uplands by a trained scientist. At the time of his visit, the area was still effectively beyond the frontier, and he provides a good picture of life there. The frontispiece shows the mining town of Potosi. WAGNER-CAMP 15d:1. HOWES S194. GRAFF 3702. SABIN 77881. CLARK II:66. REESE, BEST OF THE WEST 45 (note).
(Inventory #: WRCAM18591)