The Yosemite Valley, and the mammoth trees and geysers of California. New York: T. Nelson and Sons, 42 Bleecker Street, n.d. [1870?]. 10 x 16 cm, pp. [1-3] 4-40, 12 chromolithograph plates, 1 map, original dark blue cloth with decorative stamping in black, gold, and blind with title printed on pictorial paper inlay on front cover, yellow coated endpapers. First edition. At head of title: "Nelsons' Pictorial Guide-books." The British Library dates their copy 1870. The guide was bound in various colors of cloth with title stamped in gold on front cover and decorations in black and blind. A copy in this binding at CHi is inscribed by an early owner "Merry Christmas! To Bernie from her sister Libbie. 1871." Also observed in bindings with decorative stamping in black, gold, and blind with title printed on pictorial paper inlay on front cover. This pocket guide, probably published in 1870, described Yosemite Valley, the Mariposa, Fresno, and Calaveras sequoia groves, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley geysers. The descriptions were based on observations made by the Nelson party while visiting California. The author was not identified, but it is probable that it was William Nelson. The following note is found on page 32: "A lady of our party -- Mrs. William Nelson, the wife of Mr. W. Nelson, of the well-known British publishing firm of Thomas Nelson and Sons [of Edinburgh, Scotland] -- was allowed by the proprietor of these trees [the Calaveras Grove] to name one of them after the city of her residence ..." The tinted lithographic plates depict scenes in Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa and Calaveras groves. This copy is dated 1874 by an early visitor who has drawn a map of Yosemite Valley and vicinity on page 5 and annotated the "Outline Map of Routes to Yosemite and the Mammoth Tree Groves" on page 6. Cloth rubbed at spine ends and corner tips, three plates loose, a very good copy. (#165761).
Price: $100.00
No statement of printing.