[PACIFIC RAILROAD SURVEY]. Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean... Washington: Beverley Tucker, A.O.P. Nicholson, Thomas H. Ford, 1855-1860.

11 volumes bound in 12 (comprising vols. 1-10 and vol. 12 bound in two parts, lacking vol. 11), 4to (286 x 222 mm). Hand-tinted lithographs, numerous maps and charts. (Offsetting, spotting, light soiling, closed tears, without the folding "General Map" in Vol. 1 which is not present in all copies, lacking 3 black and white natural history plates.) Modern black cloth, black morocco lettering-pieces (rubbing to spine labels).

FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, mixed House and Senate issues. This work comprises the largest and most important exploration reports ever published about the Trans-Mississippi West, representing "the combined efforts of the Topographical Engineers and a sizeable contingent of the country's foremost scientists. Not since Napoleon had taken his company of savants into Egypt had the world seen such an assemblage of scientists and technicians marshaled under one banner." (Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the American West 1803-1863, 305). Howes P-3; Sabin 69946; Rittenhouse 442; Wagner-Camp 262-267; Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West, 822-824.



Property from the Dorros Family Collection