THE OPENING OF WEST TEXAS — SUPER MAPS & PLATES
154. JOHNSTON, Joseph E., et al. Reports
of the Secretary of War, with Reconnaissances of Routes
from San Antonio to El Paso...Also, the Report of Capt. R.
B. Marcy’s Route from Fort Smith to Santa Fe; and the
Report of Lieut. J. H. Simpson of an Expedition into the
Navajo Country; and the Report of Lieutenant W. H. C.
Whiting’s Reconnaissances of the Western Frontier of
Texas. Washington: SED64, 1850. 250 pp., 2 large
folding maps: (1) Reconnoissances of Routes from San
Antonio de Bexas to El Paso del Norte.... Philadelphia:
P. S. Duval (62.4 x 93.2 cm; 24-5/8 x 36-3/4 inches); (2)
Map of the Route Pursued in 1849 by the U.S. Troops
Under the Command of Bvt. Lieut. Col. Jno. M. Washington,
Governor of New Mexico, in an Expedition Against the
Navajos Indians. Philadelphia: P. S. Duval (23.1 x 14.7
cm; 9 x 5-3/4 inches), 72 lithographed plates (many colored
or tinted, some folding). 8vo, original black cloth with
gilt title on spine. Some page darkening and occasional
foxing, otherwise
fine.
First edition. Alliot (Munk), p. 119. Basic Texas
Books 111: "A valuable compendium of reports of
government exploration that led to the opening of West
Texas to travel and settlement." Bennett, American
Nineteenth Century Color Plate Books, p. 63. Bradford
2824. Field 1413: "One of the most accurate and complete of
all the narratives of exploration of the country of the
Zuñi and Pueblo Indians." Graff 2228. Howes J170.
Rader 2924. Raines, p. 218. Schwartz and Ehrenberg, The
Mapping of America, p. 279: "Among the earliest
chromolithographs to appear in a government report."
Plains & Rockies IV:184. Wheat, Mapping the
Transmississippi West 641.
($750-1,500)