[Rarebooks] fa: HARRIMAN EXPEDITION to ALASKA - John Burroughs, John Muir, Edward S. Curtis, etc. - 1901

[ArCh]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, April 14. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/y5h3jodx

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

John Burroughs, John Muir, George Bird Grinnell, Edward S. Curtis (illus.) [et al]: Harriman Alaska Expedition with Cooperation of Washington Academy of Sciences. Alaska. Volume I: Narrative, Glaciers, Natives. [and] Volume II: History, Geography, Resources. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1901. FIRST EDITIONS. Two volumes, large 8vo (26 cm), in original publisher's green ribbed cloth, decorated and lettered in gilt, top page edges gilt. With 5 maps (2 of which are folding route maps on one leaf), numerous plates, some in color, many of them photogravures, and in-text illustrations (complete).

Bindings with minimal wear to the extremities, else uncommonly fresh and bright, now housed in protective mylar jackets; some toning to the plate margins and the untrimmed edges of the text blocks, else the contents are very clean and sound, firmly bound. Bookplates of the Ladies Library Association of Port Huron and faint shadows of shelf labels on the spine feet, but no other library markings; later bookplates of the Adventure and Exploration Collection of Steve Fossett (1944-2007), avid bibliophile, adventurer, record-holding sailor and aviator, and the first person to complete a solo nonstop circumnavigation of the globe in a balloon. A handsome set.

The first two volumes, complete in themselves, of what would eventually be twelve volumes, published between 1901 and 1910, describing the expedition planned and financed by Edward H. Harriman as a summer cruise for his family. It was the most elaborate private expedition to Alaska to date, including more than twenty-five scientists, writers (including John Muir and John Burroughs), photographers (including Edward S. Curtis), artists, and one hundred guests. Many of the photogravures here are after Curtis.