"FRESH AND ANIMATED DESCRIPTIONS OF WILD NATURE": 1858 FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF MOLLHAUSEN'S DIARY OF A JOURNEY FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE COASTS OF THE PACIFIC, WITH 11 COLOR LITHOGRAPHS AND IMPORTANT FOLDING MAP

MOLLHAUSEN, Baldwin. Diary of a Journey from the Mississippi to the Coasts of the Pacific with a United States Government Expedition. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1858. Two volumes. Octavo, contemporary full polished tan calf rebacked, blind-tooled spines, red and green spine labels, original marbled endpapers and edges. $7500.

First edition in English (published the same year as the German first edition), with color-outlined folding map, 11 chromolithographs depicting North American Indians and western views and 12 wood-engravings, handsomely bound.

"A brilliant account, with numerous illustrations in colored lithography, and an introduction by the Baron Alexander von Humboldt… the map is beautifully drawn and engraved… It is a highly important and decorative map" (Wheat, 106-7). Filled with "fresh and animated descriptions of wild nature in all the manifold variety of her forms, of the uncivilized state of the native tribes, and of the habits of various species of animals" (Humboldt), this is one of the great works on the Southwest and an early and thorough overview of the route to the West and the "best account" (Howes) of the Whipple expedition, one of three United States government contingents dispatched 1853 to survey possible railroad routes along the 35th parallel to the West coast. Mollhausen, an excellent artist, was the official draughtsman and naturalist of the expedition as it traveled from Fort Smith, Arkansas, across Oklahoma and northern Texas, New Mexico and the Mohave Desert to California. Howes M713. Sabin 49915. Wagner-Camp 305:2.

Short marginal closed tear to plate opposite page 248, interiors generally clean and fine. Light expert restoration and some light rubbing to extremities of contemporary calf bindings. An attractive copy.