[Rarebooks] fa: FIRST SCIENTIFIC ACCOUNT of NIAGARA FALLS + ENGRAVING in 1751 Gentleman's Magazine

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, February 23. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/mv9vq5g

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. Volume XXI  [21]. For the Year MDCCLI [1751]. London: Printed for Edw. Cave, at St. John's Gate, [1751]. Twelve monthly issues (Jan.-Dec.), plus the supplement, volume title, indices and preface. Tall 8vo (22 cm), untrimmed in early quarter calf and marbled boards; [4] + 612 + [18] pp; with numerous in-text charts and tables, woodcut diagrams and illustrations, plus 31 engraved plates, 9 of which are folding (complete)...

Contains the first account of NIAGARA FALLS written by a scientifically trained observer, "A Letter from Mr. Kalm, a Gentleman of Sweden, now on his Travels in America, to his Friend in Philadelphia, containing a particular Account of the Grat[sic] Fall of Niagara," accompanied by one of the earliest published depictions, "A View of the Fall of Niagara" (some wear and chipping to the upper edge, not affecting image). Pehr, or Peter, Kalm was a Swedish botanist and naturalist who, in 1747, was commissioned by Linnaeus and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to explore North America for plants and seeds that might prove useful in agriculture or industry. The account printed here of Kalm's travels to the "vast and terrifying Fall of Water" predates the appearance of his full work, En Resa til Norra America, which was published in Stockholm 1753-1761. Also of American interest in this volume are woodcuts, with accompanying descriptions, of Rice Birds of Carolina and the great black Wasp of Pennsylvania.