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Exploration and Survey of the Valley of Great Salt Lake of Utah, Howard Stansbury, Books w/ Maps

Currency:USD Category:Books / Antiquarian & Collectible Start Price:450.00 USD Estimated At:900.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Exploration and Survey of the Valley of Great Salt Lake of Utah, Howard Stansbury, Books w/ Maps
SOLD
1,050.00USD+ (262.50) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2021 Feb 15 @ 13:12UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
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Incredible combination of the Stansbury Expedition of 1851 text in excellent condition WITH the accompanying MAP book. The 487-page Expedition document has its original embossed covers in only slightly worn condition, fully intact with the original gold-foil embossed spine. You would be hard-pressed to find a copy of this historic document in better condition. The Maps document has suffered the wear of time, and though the existing, original front cover has separated from the spine, it includes both of the original maps published for the expedition. The maps have become fragile and bear some tears and separations at the creases. Even so, it would be even more challenging to find this maps book at all. Here we have both in one lot.

Howard Stansbury was a member of the newly formed US Corps of Topographical Engineers. He was involved in a survey of the Great Lakes in 1841, and supervised the construction of fortifications in the Dry Tortugas during the Mexican-American War.

In 1849, the US Senate commissioned a research expedition to travel from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, to the valley of the Great Salt Lake in the Utah Territory. Stansbury, then a captain with the Corps, was appointed to muster the personnel and equipment to carry out the expedition, which he completed in 1851. He assembled a team of scientific experts from various disciplines to assist him with the various disciplines they would study on the journey.

These two books are the final report of that effort, and it is a masterful compendium of not only the topography, but it also includes ethnographic studies of the Native Americans they encountered along the route, along with sections describing the botany, zoology, geology and paleontology, and chemical analyses of specimens collected along the way. His writing is highly descriptive, giving a sense of traveling with the team and experiencing each new landscape as they encountered it. He writes with empathy about the native peoples and the various groups of emigrants that were also making their way west.

His arrival and interactions with the Mormons in Great Salt Lake Valley earned him their respect and admiration. His writing on their community sought to dispel the misinformation and subsequent religious prejudice the rest of the country held for the Latter Day Saints.

The discussion of the interactions of various Indian tribes as well as emigrants to the California gold rush are very noteworthy, as are the discussions of the trial and tribulations along the way, especially having to deal with cholera, which was killing emigrants and creating fear in all.

The single-page and fold-out illustrations in the main volume are nothing short of exquisite, rendering landscapes, plants, animals, and fossils with near photographic precision, and the maps in the accompanying book are of national historic significance to this day.

The large, fold-out map is spectacular, with detail of the area during that crucial 1850s period found nowhere else. The expedition also sought a new route west in place of the Oregon Trail and new routes for transcontinental railroads.

If you can find original copies of the report alone, they are sold for hundreds of dollars, even with broken bindings and torn and missing pages. This pair is the fully complete report, with intact binding AND the maps book. Truly a rare and unique opportunity.