Details
IVES, Joseph Christmas (1828-1868). Report upon the Colorado River of the West. 36th Congress, 1st Session. Senate Executive Document [unnumbered]. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1861.
4o (284 x 220 mm). 1 profile, 15 views, 7 colored lithographed portraits of Indians, 8 folding panoramas and 3 paleontology plates (lacking the 2 folding maps). (Some light offsetting from plates onto text, last text leaf tipped-in.) Later cloth-backed marbled boards, marbled edges (some minor wear at corners and edges). Provenance: Professor B. Silliman, Jr. (presentation inscription on title-page).
FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed by John Strong Newberry on the title-page: "Prof. B. Silliman, Jr. with the kind regards of J.S. Newberry." John Strong Newberry, who was the naturalist on Ives' expedition up the Colorado River, authored Part III of this report, which discusses the geology and paleontology of the regions they explored. Ives' party were among the first white men to visit the floor of the Grand Canyon, and upon their return, it was Newberry who realized the canyon's geological significance and encouraged further exploration. It is likely that Newberry inscribed this copy to Benjamin Silliman, Jr., a noted mineralogist and Yale professor whose analyzation of "rock oil" in Pennsylvania in 1855 introduced investors to the potential of petroleum and led to the drilling of Edwin Drake's successful oil well on his property in 1857. Silliman also took on consulting activities in the American West in the 1860's and favorably reported on petroleum deposits in southern California as well as gold and silver properties in California, Nevada, and northern Arizona. Howes I-92; Sabin 35308; Wagner-Camp-Becker 375; Wheat Mapping the Transmississippi West 947, 948.
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FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed by John Strong Newberry on the title-page: "Prof. B. Silliman, Jr. with the kind regards of J.S. Newberry." John Strong Newberry, who was the naturalist on Ives' expedition up the Colorado River, authored Part III of this report, which discusses the geology and paleontology of the regions they explored. Ives' party were among the first white men to visit the floor of the Grand Canyon, and upon their return, it was Newberry who realized the canyon's geological significance and encouraged further exploration. It is likely that Newberry inscribed this copy to Benjamin Silliman, Jr., a noted mineralogist and Yale professor whose analyzation of "rock oil" in Pennsylvania in 1855 introduced investors to the potential of petroleum and led to the drilling of Edwin Drake's successful oil well on his property in 1857. Silliman also took on consulting activities in the American West in the 1860's and favorably reported on petroleum deposits in southern California as well as gold and silver properties in California, Nevada, and northern Arizona. Howes I-92; Sabin 35308; Wagner-Camp-Becker 375; Wheat Mapping the Transmississippi West 947, 948.