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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 & 1854, A.O.P. Nicholson, Washington, 1855, 12 x 9.25 , 4tos. In fair condition. Moderate wear to extremities with scuffing to corners and edges. Spines lacking on volumes 11 & 12. Mixed set 10,11,12 are cloth the rest bound in half leather. Leather desiccated with areas of red rot on a few volumes. Nothing too atypical. Bindings are all intact. Folding plates are all intact and working. Colored plates bright and clean with light offsetting. Free of known marginalia. Old hand inscription from William O. Goode (1798-1859) an American politician, slave owner and lawyer from Virginia. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1841-43 and from 1853 until his death in 1859. He gifts this set to A.J. Leavenworth. Remarkably preserved. Please see photos. Please contact us for additional specifics. Large quarto: vol. 1, pp. viii, 652, (all maps noted are found in volume 11). Vol. 2, pp. 128, 23 plates (some colored) & pp. 45 & pp. 186, 10 plates & pp. 50, 2 folded hand colored maps & pp. 28 & pp. 22. (other maps located in volume 11). Vol. 3, pp. 36, x, 1 colored plate, & pp. 136, 10 colored plates, & pp. 78, 2 colored plates, 8 charts & pp. 127, 8 colored plates, & pp. viii, 176, 2 hand colored folded maps, 3 plates (1 colored). Volume 4, pp. vii, 26, 193, folded hand colored map, 49 plates & pp. 288. Vol. 5, pp. 44, 12 plates & pp. xvi, 370, five colored maps, 14 sections, 36 plates & pp. xiii, 15, 18 plates, & pp. 14. Vol. 6, pp. 134, 13 plates, & pp. 85, 5 plates, & pp. 102, 16 plates (some colored), & pp. 114, 16 plates (2 colored), & pp. iv, 64. ( some maps found in volume 11). Vol. 7, pp. 42, 8 plates (colored), & pp. 204, 24 plates. 2 folded hand colored maps, & pp. 28, 8 plates, & pp. 116, 11 plates, & pp. 37. (some maps in volume 11). Vol. 8, pp. xlviii, 756, 43 plates. Vol. 9, pp. lvi, 1008. Vol. 10, pp. 16, 13 plates, & pp. 400, 21 plates, & pp. 30, 20 plates (some colored), & pp. 64, 34 plates (some colored) & pp. 24, 4 plates (colored), & pp. 100, 26 plates, & pp. 14, 4 plates. Vol. 11, pp. 116, 4 plates, 5 folded maps, pp. 4, 13 plates, (5 folded), 33 folded maps and profiles. (these are the maps which are discussed and referred to in previous volumes). The large folded Warren map was removed at some point and archival re-backed and preserved in a separate archival folder. Vol. 12 (part 1) pp. 334, 2 folded maps, 1 sheet of profiles, 70 plates (some colored). Vol. 12 (parts 2 & 3), pp. 76, 6 plates, & pp. 399, 47 plates. This large quarto set is the most important and massive compilation of exploration reports and data ever published about the trans-Mississippi West. Under the direction of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the Pacific Railroad survey in two years increased the contemporary knowledge of the geography, topography, geology, and natural history of the West by a quantum leap. Included herein are the reports of Humphreys, Stevens, Beckwith, Whipple, Warren, Williamson, Lander, et al, supplemented with reports on scientific observations, and numerous significant achievements in cartography including Warren's "Map of the Territory of the United States from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean." (here present in the eleventh volume), which has been hailed as "the best cartographical work on the West up to its time." (Howes). The illustrative material (engraved and lithographed views, specimens of birds, fishes, and other animals) is of the highest quality, often in colored state, and encompasses thousands of illustrations, either in the text or as separate plates. Wheat devotes twenty-four pages of detailed discussion to the maps in this series of reports, singling out the Warren map as "among the great maps of the United States that preceded the Civil War." All things consider. Seller Inventory # RAREA1855XZBX
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