Central Route to the Pacific Gwinn Harris Heap, 1854 HEAP, Gwinn Harris (1817-1887). Central Route to the Pacific, from the Valley of the Mississippi to California. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo and Co., 1854. First edition, including the rare map depicting the central route to California, through the middle Rockies and across Death Valley. In 1853, E.F. Beale, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and Heap traveled westward from Missouri under a Congressional mandate to select lands suitable for use as Indian reservations. The narrative includes their observations of many unexplored areas as they journeyed through New Mexico and Utah, eventually ending in Los Angeles—as well as the account of Reverend James W. Brier, a pioneer emigrant who crossed Death Valley in 1849, the earliest published such account. "Of all the journals and diaries telling of the Mojave desert crossing, none appears comparable to Heap in sheer readability and in picturesque descriptive quality" (Edward, Enduring Desert, pp. 110-11). The illustrations include scenes of traversing the Grand River and the Green River, Huerfano Canyon, the Sawatch Valley, etc. The long folding map is not inserted in most copies. Cowan II p.107; Graff 1837; Howes H-378 ("b"); Sabin 31175; Streeter sale 3177; Wagner-Camp 235; Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West 808.c. Octavo (224 x 142mm). Half-title, 46-page publisher's advertisements at end, publisher's advertisements printed on endpapers. Folding map of the central route from the Mississippi to California tipped in at rear pastedown and 13 tinted lithographed plates (map with some small reinforcements to folds on verso). Original blind-stamped cloth, gilt-lettered on spine (rebacked with most of original spine laid down, gilt and spine darkened). Provenance: Arthur Pratt (early ownership signature on title-page).
Central Route to the Pacific Gwinn Harris Heap, 1854 HEAP, Gwinn Harris (1817-1887). Central Route to the Pacific, from the Valley of the Mississippi to California. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo and Co., 1854. First edition, including the rare map depicting the central route to California, through the middle Rockies and across Death Valley. In 1853, E.F. Beale, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and Heap traveled westward from Missouri under a Congressional mandate to select lands suitable for use as Indian reservations. The narrative includes their observations of many unexplored areas as they journeyed through New Mexico and Utah, eventually ending in Los Angeles—as well as the account of Reverend James W. Brier, a pioneer emigrant who crossed Death Valley in 1849, the earliest published such account. "Of all the journals and diaries telling of the Mojave desert crossing, none appears comparable to Heap in sheer readability and in picturesque descriptive quality" (Edward, Enduring Desert, pp. 110-11). The illustrations include scenes of traversing the Grand River and the Green River, Huerfano Canyon, the Sawatch Valley, etc. The long folding map is not inserted in most copies. Cowan II p.107; Graff 1837; Howes H-378 ("b"); Sabin 31175; Streeter sale 3177; Wagner-Camp 235; Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West 808.c. Octavo (224 x 142mm). Half-title, 46-page publisher's advertisements at end, publisher's advertisements printed on endpapers. Folding map of the central route from the Mississippi to California tipped in at rear pastedown and 13 tinted lithographed plates (map with some small reinforcements to folds on verso). Original blind-stamped cloth, gilt-lettered on spine (rebacked with most of original spine laid down, gilt and spine darkened). Provenance: Arthur Pratt (early ownership signature on title-page).
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