(#166146) The Big Tree of California. (Sequoia gigantea.) [cover title]. MARTIN VIVIAN.

The Big Tree of California. (Sequoia gigantea.) [cover title]. Philad[elphi]a: Published by Charles A. Dixon & Co. Stationers and Blank Book Makers, 911 Arch St., n.d. [1876]. 11.5x8 cm, pp. [1-2] [1] 2-13 [14: ad] (pagination includes paper covers), original salmon wrappers printed in black, side stapled. First edition. Signed in type at end of text on page 13: "Martin Vivian." This pamphlet is the "interesting printed history" referred to by the 1876 broadside, California Big Tree (1876). It was prepared for visitors to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, where a section of giant sequoia was exhibited outside the main fairgrounds on Elm Avenue. In 1876 this tree was felled in the Grant Grove and a hollowed-out section was shipped to Philadelphia and set up as a room sixteen feet in diameter. There is a confused account of the felling and exhibition in A Guide to the Grand and Sublime Scenery of the Sierra Nevada ... , edited by W. W. Elliott (1883), pp. 20-21, which states that Martin Vivian was arrested for vandalism for felling the tree. "He was fined $50 by the Court. He ought to have been imprisoned for life!" Vivian's text notes that "one pamphlet for each adult or family and a ticket of entrance may be had at 25 cts. for adults and 10 cts. for children." See Kruska (1985), pp. 46-51. Currey and Kruska 382. This copy has the errata sheet bound into some copies. A very good copy. This copy has penciled corrections and rewrites throughout, perhaps made for a new printing. The third known copy. (#166146).

Printing identification statement for this book:
No statement of printing.