Auction details
9:00 AM PT - Nov 19th, 2008
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BARTRAM, John. Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, Animals, and other matters worthy of Notice. Made by Mr. John Bartram, In his Travels from Pensilvania to Onondago, Oswego and the Lake Ontario, In Canada. London: J. Whiston and B. White, 1751. [2], 94 pp., 8vo (195 x 120 mm). Engraved folding frontispiece. Quarter brown morocco. Condition: a few corners folded, minor foxing, frontispiece cleanly separated at fold. first edition of an important account of an early pennsylvania expedition to visit the central council fire of the six nations. In the summer of 1743, Philadelphia naturalist John Bartram accompanied Pennsylvania Indian agent Conrad Weiser on an expedition to Onondaga to maintain peaceful relations with members of the Six Nations. "This is a very reliable work by two of the most eminent observers and naturalists of their day ... [Bartram's] book throws considerable light upon the manners and thoughts of the people with whom he came in contact" (Church). Accompanying Bartram and Weiser was Lewis Evans, who used surveys taken on the expedition to create his famed (and very rare) 1749 Map of Pennsylvania. The work is also of note for its frontispiece plate, a "map" of Oswego that includes one of few contemporary diagrams of a Long House peculiar to tribes of the Six Nations. Appended is an account by Peter Kalm containing the first scientific description in English of Niagara Falls. Church 977; Field 92; Howes B222; Sabin 3868; Siebert Sale 152; TPL 186; Streeter Sale 869.ImagesClick on thumbnails to see larger images: 
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