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Books > Americana & Canadiana (326 items)
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Results Page:
(total 33 pages)
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 ABERT, James W. (1820-1897)
Message from the President ... Communicating a report of an expedition led by Lieutenant Abert, on the Upper Arkansas and through the country of the Camanche Indians, in the fall of the year 1845
[Washington: 1846]. Octavo (8 ¾ x 5 ½ inches). 13 lithographic plates and maps (1 large folding map, 1 folding "sketch [map] of a day's travel," 11 plates [1 folding]). (Old dampstaining, browning to title). Paper wrappers with early manuscript title label to upper cover, housed in a modern cloth chemise and red morocco backed slipcase.
The first printing of this important report on the exploration of the American West
The large folding map was drawn using the first astronomical observations to be made in the territory traversed: Wheat describes this map as "of great interest" and suggests that it was probably drawn by Charles Preuss. It is notable for the new information on the country between the Arkansas and Canadian rivers. Under Fremont's orders, Abert travelled west to the Raton Mountains, down the Canadian, and back to Fort Gibson through the Creek Nation. The views are quite handsome and include the famous plate of Bent's Fort, as well as depictions of West Texas and Oklahoma.
Graff 6; Howes A10; Rittenhouse 1; Wheat Transmississippi 489; Sabin 59; Wagner-Camp 120.
#23463 $1,800.00  
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 ADAIR, James (1709-1783)
History of the American Indians; Particularly Those Nations Adjoining to the Mississippi, East and West Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia
London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, 1775. 4to (10 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches). Half-title. Engraved folding map. Later full brown morocco, covers with a gilt border, spine with raised bands in six compartments, lettered in gilt, top edge gilt. Provenance: London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews (ink stamp on title, leather label on rear pastedown); Harry Snyder (bookplate).
First edition of the "best 18th-century English source on the Southern tribes, written by one who traded forty years with them" (Howes).
James Adair was a frontiersman and fur trader who lived among the Catawba, Chickasaw, and Cherokee for forty years, gathering first-hand information about the customs of these Indian tribes. He was one of the first white settlers to explore the Alleghenies, and because he lived among the Indians, his observations "of the peculiarities of the Southern Indians ... is not without great value" (Field, p. 3). As the title details, in this work he explores their "origin, language, manners, religious and civil customs, laws, form of government, punishments, conduct in war and domestic life, habits, diet, agriculture, manufactures, diseases and method of cure, and other particulars, sufficient to render it a complete Indian system, with observations on former historians, the conduct of our colony governors, superintendents, missionaries, &c."
Clark I, 28; Field 11; Graff 1; Howes A38; Sabin 155; Vail 643.
#26606$4,800.00
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ADAMS, Amos
A Concise, Historical View of the Difficulties, Hardships, and Perils which attended the planting and progressive improvements of New-England. with a particular account of its long and destructive wars, expensive expeditions, &c.
Boston printed, London reprinted: 1770. [2],68pp. Lacks half-title. Disbound. Minor foxing and soiling. Very good.
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Justifying American Liberty in 1770
History of New England from the time of settlement through the French and Indian War. This work contains much information on King Philip's War, as well as the French and Indian War. Toward the end the author comments on the current state of affairs, mentioning the Stamp Act and its repeal, saying "This was a strange turn in favour of American liberty." "One of the fullest and most interesting narratives of the establishment and development of the Colony of New England, with particular emphasis on the various Indian Wars and Expeditions" - Eberstadt. Relatively scarce.
ESTC T31122, American Controversy 69-1b, Eberstadt 106:2 (1st ed); Howes A43; Sabin 170
#25745$1,250.00
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 ADAMS, John Quincy
[Autograph letter, signed, to Ward Nicholas Boylston discussing the Boylston prize at Harvard and University politics]
Washington. May 24, 1819. [3]pp. Quarto, on a folded folio sheet.Old fold lines. Minor soiling to third page, but generally quite clean. Very good plus.
J.Q. Adams on Harvard Politics
A fine and lengthy letter written by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams to his father's cousin and close friend, Ward Nicholas Boylston, on awarding the Boylston prize just founded by him, and discussing candidates for a Harvard professorship. Adams graduated from Harvard and was himself a professor of rhetoric there between diplomatic assignments. He writes:
"I have observed with pleasure and gratitude your persevering efforts of beneficence to the University at Cambridge, and have heard of the Institution of your Prizes for Elocution, which cannot but be attended with effects. Its operation by experience may perhaps suggest some rules for the distribution of the Prizes, which, if you should conclude to make the Institution permanent, you may think it advisable to prescribe. Would it not for instance be useful to direct, that if one of the undergraduates should obtain one of the first prizes, he should not upon a succeeding year be admitted as a competitor to speak in the same language? And would it not be proper to enlarge the circle of languages in which the pieces may be spoken - at least by admitting the French? From the experience which I have had of the defects most common among the young orators, I think it should be prescribed as an inflexible rule that no prompting should be allowed; and that whatever merit any of the speakers might display, no prize should be given in any case where a failure of memory should be perceptible."
Adams goes on to discuss his ideas regarding the Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory, specifically that the candidate be well qualified for the office, not just "for any quality required by the place...the corporation of Harvard University, though including some of the best men in the world, is and for many years has been more of a Caucus Club than a literary and scientific society... When they have a place to fill their question is not, Who is fit for the place, but Who is to be provided for? and their whole range of candidates is a Parson or a Partizan or both."
A fine, lengthy letter, written out in Adams' distinctive hand
#23719$14,500.00
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 [ALAMAN, Lucas (1792-1853)]
Memoria de la Secretaria de Estado y del Despacho de Relaciones Interiores y Exteriores, Presentada...en la de Diputados el Dia 7, y en la de Senadores el 8 de Enero de 1831
Mexico: Imprenta del Aguila, 1831. Small folio (11 x 8 inches). [2],53,[22]pp. Wood-engraved crest of Mexico on the title. Contemporary Mexican red morocco, covers with a decorative gilt roll-tool border, the flat spine divided into four compartments by gilt fillets and roll tools, the compartments with repeat decoration of a single small centrally-placed flower-spray tool, gilt turn-ins, green embossed silk pastedowns and free endpapers, gilt edges.
An important official commentary on the state of the Mexican Republic, just prior to the Texas Revolution: here in a deluxe presentation binding.
This scarce annual report on the state of Mexico by Lucas Alaman (1792-1853), Minister of Interior and Exterior Relations, was issued during a time of unrest in the republic, particularly with the growing resentment among Texas settlers. Alaman was a controversial figure in 19th-century Mexico. A scientist, politician, historian, diplomat, and writer, he was conservative by nature and expressed a nostalgia for monarchic rule. He was an influential politician in the early years of the Mexican Republic and favored a strong central government. Alaman was also instrumental in the creation of the Mexican National Archives and the Natural History Museum in Mexico City. This report reviews foreign relations, and lauds the republic's domestic tranquility, prosperity and freedoms.
Palau 160863.
#23332$2,750.00
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 ALCEDO, Antonio de (1735-1812) and THOMPSON, G.A.
[Atlas to Thompson's Alcedo; or Dictionary of America & West Indies; Collated with all the most Recent Authorities, and Composed Chiefly from Scarce and Original Documents, for that Work, By A. Arrowsmith, Hydrographer to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent
London: George Smeeton, 1816]. Large folio (26 1/4 x 20 1/2 inches). Small format (8 1/8 x 4 3/4 inches) index leaf mounted on front pastedown, otherwise mounted on guards throughout, 5 wall maps, hand-coloured in outline, by Aaron Arrowsmith, on 19 double-page or folding engraved sheets, each numbered on a small early paper label pasted to the verso of each sheet ('North America' on three sheets [numbered 'I'-'III'], 'United States' four sheets ['IV'-'VII'], 'Mexico' four sheets ['VIII'-'XI'], 'West Indies' two sheets ['XII'-'XIII'], 'South America' six sheets ['XIV'-'XIX']), extra-illustrated with a contemporary pen, ink and watercolour key map (sheet size:17 x 16 1/4 inches) laid down on a larger sheet of blank wove paper, the larger sheet mounted on the front free endpaper. (Without letterpress title, various small separations to folds). Expertly bound to style in half diced russia over original marbled paper-covered boards, the borders between the leather and marbled paper on the covers marked with a decorative gilt roll, with the paper armorial book plate of the Earl of Dalhousie pasted onto the centre of the upper cover, the spine divided into eight compartments with semi-raised bands, the bands flanked by blind fillets, lettered in the second and fourth compartments, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt. Provenance: George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie (1770-1838, lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia [1816-1820], governor-in-chief of British North America [1820-1828], bookplates).
[With:]
Antonio de ALCEDO (1735-1812). The Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies, Containing an Entire Translation of the Spanish Work of Colonel Don Antonio de Alcedo ... With Large Additions and Compilations ... London: for James Carpenter [and others], 1812-1815. 5 volumes, quarto (10 1/2 x 8 3/8 inches). 3pp. preliminary list of subscribers in vol.I. (Half-titles lacking). Contemporary russia, covers with outer border composed from triple fillets tooled in gilt, enclosing a decorative neo-classical roll in blind, spine in six compartments with semi-raised bands, the bands highlighted with a decorative roll in blind and flanked by double fillets in blind, lettered in gilt in the second and fourth compartments, the others with repeat decoration in gilt, gilt turn-ins, marbled edges.
The Dalhousie copy of the most important printed atlas of the Americas of its time, containing foundation wall maps of the region by the greatest British cartographer of his generation. This important copy with contemporary manuscript additions charting Sir John Franklin's second Arctic expedition, possibly by Franklin himself. The atlas is accompanied by a lovely first edition set of the text of Thompson's translation and expansion of Alcedo's classic work on the Americas.
"Aaron Arrowsmith, Hydrographer to the King of England and Geographer to the Prince of Wales, was the most influential and respected map publisher of the first quarter of the nineteenth century ... His role in cartographic production was to gather the best information available from a wide variety of sources, weigh the relative merits of conflicting data, and compile from this the most accurate depiction possible of an area. Arrowsmith accomplished this synthesis better than any other commercial map maker of his day and, as a result, his maps were the most sought after and highly prized on three continents" (Martin & Martin, p. 113).
Arrowsmith specialised in large multi-sheet maps. These were generally separately-issued, and are now very scarce. His five great wall maps of the Americas were particularly well-received, and became "foundation or prototype maps of the area and were extensively copied by other publishers" (Tooley). These five wall maps were of North America (first published 1795), the United States (1796), the West Indies (1803), Mexico (1810), and South America (1810). They were generally republished many times, as new information became available. Thomas Jefferson considered the 1803 edition the best map of the continent in print at the time, and it was used extensively in planning Lewis & Clark's expedition (1805-6). Likewise, the 1814 edition of the North America (offered here) was the first map to make use of Lewis & Clark's map of the same year, and the first to combine Lewis & Clark and Zebulon Pike's data onto one map.
The Atlas to Thompson's Alcedo is quite remarkable in that it contains all five of Arrowsmith's foundation maps for the Americas gathered together, and bound into one volume. The Atlas was intended to accompany Antonio de Alcedo's The Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies ... With Large Additions and Compilations (London: 1812-1815. 5 volumes, quarto), i.e. G.A. Thompson's English translation of Alcedo's Diccionario geográfico-histórico de las Indias Occidentales ó América: es á saber: de los reynos del Perú, Nueva España, Tierra Firme, Chile, y Nuevo reyno de Granada. (Madrid: 1786-1789).
The present atlas is an early version, with the following maps:
1. A Map Exhibiting all the New Discoveries in the Interior Parts of North America ... A. Arrowsmith ... January 1st 1795 Additions to 1811 Additions to June 1814. On three folding sheets, overall image area: 48 ¼ x 57 1/8 inches. (Browned). This copy with manuscript additions to the first sheet, in pencil, drawing in the discoveries made by Sir John Franklin in 1826 on the north coast between the mouths of the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers, and marking the course of the Coppermine south-west towards Great Bear Lake [see below]. According to Stevens and Tree, "This map was repeatedly re-issued as new discoveries came to light." The present sixth issue is the first to include the important discoveries made by Lewis and Clark during their trans-American expedition. According to Rumsey, "This issue ... remaps the entire continent west of the Mississippi. The changes between this and the last edition are monumental" (p.12). Heckrotte TMC 6/87; Rumsey 32; Stevens & Tree 48 (f); Tooley MCC 68; Wheat 313.
2. A Map of the United States of America Drawn from a number of Critical Researches By A. Arrowsmith ... Jan 1st 1796. Additions to 1802 [but watermarked 1811]. On four folding sheets, overall image area: 46 ¼ x 55 ½ inches. Stevens and Tree's fifth issue: "Many new place-names and rivers added. A copy of third issue had been observed with paper watermarked 1811 [as here]." Cf. Rumsey 3445 and 4309 (both later issues); Stevens & Tree 79 (e).
3. A New Map of Mexico and adjacent provinces compiled from original documents by A. Arrowsmith ... 5th October 1810 [but watermarked 1811]. On four folding sheets, overall image area: 50 1/8 x 62 inches. First issue. Cf. Phillips p.408; cf. Rumsey 2032 (last issue, of c.1825); cf. Streeter Texas 1046.
4. Chart of the West Indies and Spanish Dominions in North America by A. Arrowsmith ... 1803 ... Additions to 1810. On two folding sheets, overall image area: 47 5/8 x 55 ½ inches. (Small tears to folds of first sheet).
5. Outlines of the Physical and Political Divisions of South America: Delineated by A. Arrowsmith partly from scarce and original documents published before the year 1806 but principally from manuscript maps & surveys made between the years 1771 and 1806. Corrected from accurate astronomical observations to 1810 ... Published 4th January 1811 ... Additions to 1814." On six folding sheets, overall image area: 94 x 78 inches. (Offsetting, small tears to folds, the fifth sheet creased). The final sheet includes a large uncoloured inset of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and the Falklands.
In addition, the above maps are preceded by a contemporary manuscript key map. This is evidently professionally prepared, and may have been produced and bound-in by the Arrowsmiths in place of the usual title page, at the request of the owner of the atlas, the Earl of Dalhousie. Dalhousie was appointed lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia in July 1816. He arrived in Halifax in October 1816, equipped with "an intelligent and well-stocked mind, an exacting sense of duty, a readiness to command and an expectation of being obeyed ... Conscientious and full of curiosity ... With an appreciative eye for rugged scenery... , he adopted the habit of making frequent trips to the countryside" (Peter Burroughs, writing for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography). Given this lively interest in his new domain, it is safe to assume that the present work was often consulted by the lieutenant governor. After a relatively successful period in Nova Scotia, Dalhousie was appointed governor-in-chief of North America in April 1820. His period in office (from 1820 to 1828) spanned the opening burst of northwest passage explorations by the British Navy, events which the governor would have been duty-bound to follow closely.
In Montreal, on Friday 24th August 1827, one of the early heroes of Arctic Exploration, Captain John Franklin was given an audience with Dalhousie. Dalhousie recorded the meeting in detail in his journal: "On Thursday Capt. Franklin arrived about 3pm and soon after took me aside to say, that he had brought his charts of the route of the expedition with him, & was ready to describe them whenever it might be agreeable. As it was late, we fixed on next day after breakfast and a most interesting forenoon we spent over them. He had several parts on large scale, starting from Fort William on Lake Superior, & proceeding to McKenzie's river, Cape Anxiety and Fog island, where he was stopt & obliged to turn back. After these he shewed ... his general & principal chart, which comprehends only the country explored this last year, when he started from Fort Franklin on the Great Bear Lake, S.W. corner. ... The charts are beautifully executed by a Mr. Kendall, a young man of whom [Franklin] speaks very highly. He went over these giving the clearest description of the relative situations of the MacKenzie & Coppermine rivers, also that of the Rocky Mountains" (M. Whitelaw , editor. The Dalhousie Journals [Canada: 1982], vol.III, pp. 110-111).
The manuscript additions to the first sheet in the present atlas (A Map Exhibiting all the New Discoveries in the Interior Parts of North America) suggest that it was used during this meeting. This first sheet of the whole of North America is on a large enough scale to have allowed Franklin to put his more localised charts in context, and in three areas Franklin's discoveries are sketched in pencil and inscribed "Capt Franklin 1826." These inscriptions appear to be in Franklin's hand. The sketched geographical features record: 1. the coast to the west of the mouth of the MacKenzie River; 2. the coast between the MacKenzie and Coppermine Rivers; and 3. the approximate course of the Coppermine River south-west towards Great Bear Lake. Following the meeting, Franklin continued back to Britain, arriving in September 1827 to universal acclaim. He was knighted in April 1829, in recognition of his achievements.
Lowndes I, 26; Sabin 683 ("Copies are sometimes found with an atlas of ... maps by Arrowsmith, but they are rare"); Cf. M. Whitelaw (editor) The Dalhousie Journals (Canada: 1982), vol.III, pp. 110-111.
#23952$115,000.00
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ALDEN, Timothy
An Account of the Several Religious Societies in Portsmouth, New-Hampshire, from their first establishment, and of the ministers of each, to the first of january, 1805
Boston: 1808. 40pp. Disbound. Final two leaves detached; tear in final text leaf, repaired. Light foxing and soiling. Good.
Local history of merit, delineating religious societies in Portsmouth. Scarce on the market.
Shaw & Shoemaker 14315
#25746$100.00
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 [ALMANAC] - Samuel CLOUGH
Clough's Farewell, 1708. An Almanack for ... 1708
Boston: B. Green, 1708. 8vo (6 3/8 x 4 inches). 16pp. Man of signs woodcut on p. 2. Title within a mourning border. Scattered contemporary marginalia. Stitched self-wrappers.
Scarce early American almanac
Clough's final almanac, with the remark on the title that it was "Design'd for the Publick By Samuel Clough, Before his Death, which was October 26, 1707." An elegy on the late Clough is included on the penultimate page. The final page contains an advertisement for Clough's widow, who has employed an "Ingenous Young Man" skilled in making money scales.
Evans 1292; Drake 2932.
#26579$2,000.00
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 [ALMANAC] - TRAVIS, Daniel
MDCCXI. An Almanack of Coeliestial Motions and Aspects for the Year ... 1711 ...
Boston: N. Boone, 1711. 8vo (6 x 3 3/4 inches). 16pp., plus initial and terminal blanks. Man of signs woodcut on p. 2. Contemporary stitched marbled paper wrappers. Provenance: Dr. Timothy L. Jennison (19th century presentation inscription to); Samuel Webber; Isabel Otis (later inscription).
Scarce early American almanac.
Evans incorrectly ascribes the printing of this almanac to Bradford in New York. It is very unusual to find American almanacs from this early period in their original wrappers.
Evans 1490; Drake 2940.
#26548$2,000.00
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 ALMON, John (1737-1805, editor and publisher)
The Remembrancer, or impartial repository of public events
London: printed for J. Almon, 1775. Royal octavo (9 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches ). [5]-257,[3]pp. 1 folding engraved map. Uncut and unopened. Contemporary calf-backed marbled paper-covered boards, spine with semi-raised bands in six compartments, morocco lettering piece in the second compartment, date tooled in gilt in the third (losses to head and tail of spine).
The first volume of what would eventually become a vitally important seventeen-volume set of documents relating to the American Revolution.
This first volume of Almon's work is here in its fourth edition, containing the important folding "Map of the Environs of Boston." The first volume was the only one that appeared in multiple editions. Almon, a British publisher, was the primary source for British publications concerning American political and military affairs throughout the Revolution. In this periodical, the first British reference on affairs in America, he gathered British, American, and Continental information about American events. "A veritable mine of information, containing every authentic paper relative to the American Revolution, whether published in England or in America, by the British Ministry or the American Congress, and is even to-day the original authority from which much of our information is based" (Church). The folding map, drawn in Boston in June 1775 and published by Almon on Aug. 28, provides a detailed look at the city that at the time was the focus of Revolutionary activities. Boston is shown in great detail, and the map includes Cambridge and Dorchester. John Hancock's house is located, as are the Common and Beacon Hill. Much military information is included, such as the locations of British fortifications and camps, and the positions of ships and floating batteries.
Complete set: Church 1115; Howes A182, "b"; Sabin 955. Not in Adams.
#25260$2,250.00
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(total 33 pages)
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Copyright © 2002-2011 Donald A. Heald
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