Heading: (Pacific Railroad Reports)
Author:
Title: Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for A Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Made Under the Direction of the Secretary of War, in 1853-54...
Place Published: Washington D.C.
Publisher:
Date Published: 1855-1860
Description:

12 volumes in 13. Extensively illustrated with color lithograph plates of scenic views, black & white lithographs of geological, botanical & zoological subjects (including some hand-colored lithographs of birds), graphs & charts, folding maps, etc. 28.8x22 cm (11½x8¾"), uniformly bound in modern maroon leather, lettered in gilt; fresh endpapers. All Senate issue except for volume XII part 1 which is the later House issue.

Believed to be complete (but not collated) set of the Quarto Edition of the massive compilation of surveys and reports undertaken under the aegis of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis in the largest concerted effort to map the western frontier of the United States to that time. Four major routes were surveyed, from a northern route terminating at the mouth of the Columbia River to a southern route running through Texas to San Diego. Among the principal contributors were A.A. Humphreys, G.K. Warren, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, J.G. Parke, A.W. Whipple, J.C. Ives, W.H. Emory, Spencer F. Baird and others. The important series of lithographic views of the West, from drawings by Richard and Edward Kern, Tom Mix Stanley, Charles Koppel and others, presented to the world some of the first depictions of previously unexplored regions of the West, and some of its newly civilized regions including Los Angeles in vol. 5. Wagner-Camp notes, "Despite their flaws, these volumes contain a monumental collection of scientific information, geographical, zoological, botanical, geological, of the still mysterious American West. Upon first examination, the volumes seem forbiddingly disorganized... however these faults are amply compensated by the richness of the material within." Howes P3; Wagner-Camp 262-267.

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Touches of wear to leather; varying degrees of age-toning and damp staining to pages, new bindings tight, a few stub tears to maps, longer tears in vol. 3 and 12, some repaired with tape, one map torn loose, no apparent paper loss; very good.