Souvenir of California. Yo Semite Valley and the Big Trees. What to see and how to see it. By J. M. Hutchings of Yo Semite. San Francisco: Published by J. M. Hutchings 19 Montgomery St. and 1810 Gough St., [1894]. 17x12 cm, pp. [1-2] [1-3] 4-101 [102], 53 illustrations, 2 maps, one folded and inserted, original pictorial brown wrappers printed in black. First edition. Cover title reads: "Price 50 Cents[.] Yosemite and the Big Trees of California[.] What to See and How to See it[.] By J. M. Hutchings." Five editions of this inexpensive guide to the Yosemite region were issued between 1894 and 1900. The first, printed in 1894 for the 1895 season, was the only edition available in both cloth and paper bindings; subsequent editions were issued in paper covers only. Later editions have minor changes in text and illustrations and all but the first have advertisements. The second and third editions were not so identified, but both added an "addenda" (page [103]) which described Hetch Hetchy Valley. Internal evidence indicates the "fourth edition" was issued in 1898 and the "fifth edition" was printed in 1900 for the 1901 season. The "fifth edition" is retitled Hutchings' Guide and Souvenir of California. Yo Semite Valley and Big Trees. What to See and How to See It. Currey and Kruska 182. Several stains to covers, spine ends professionally mended, a very good copy. Copies of the first edition in this binding are rare. Enclosed in a custom quarter leather clamshell box with leather spine label. (#170173).
No statement of printing.