Western Americana from The George S. MacManus Company

The George S. MacManus Co. has issued a catalogue of Western Americana. If you collect western Americana, you must have this catalogue. This is not hyperbole, exaggeration. There is such an amazing a collection of important works here, some well-known, others important though obscure. There will be many you want. It is just a question of what your budget permits, but many are within the range of modest budgets. This collection is not heavy on the lawmen vs. bad guys, cowboys vs. Indians type of material. What is featured is exploration, settlers, railroads, trails, gold rushing, travel guides, the types of things that most affected new travelers to the West. There's not much more to say, so here are a few selections though they barely scratch the surface of the variety of western Americana you will find.

If you were traveling west in the earlier part of the nineteenth century, you weren't taking the Oregon Trail. That trail began farther west than where these journeys ended. This travel guide it titled The Navigator: Containing Directions for Navigating the Monongahela, Alleghany [sic], Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers...To Which is Added an Appendix, Containing an Account of Louisiana, and of the Missouri and Columbia River, as Discovered by the Voyage under Captains Lewis and Clark, published in 1808. It is called the sixth edition, but only three earlier ones are known, 1802, 1804, and 1806. It provides river guides to and traveling down the Mississippi River. This might seem out of place in a catalogue of western Americana, but in 1808, what we think of now as the heartland was the west. The “West” essentially ended at the Mississippi rather than beginning there. What was on the other side was unknown. This edition is notable as it was the first to contain the addition of an account of Lewis and Clark's expedition. The year 1808 was still four years ahead of Lewis & Clark's official account and no one on the journey was allowed to publish before them. However, Patrick Gass, a carpenter on the trip, broke the rules and published his account seven years early. In a lucky coincidence for Cramer, Gass had his book printed by Cramer, giving him early access to Gass' account. It is condensed into ten pages in the appendix. Item 26. $17,500.

Samuel F. Du Pont entered the Navy in 1815 at the tender age of 12. His father couldn't afford to continue his education after his wool mill failed, though his uncle was the famous industrialist Du Pont. He rose quickly in the Navy, by 1842 being appointed a Commander. In 1846, he was given command of the Cyane in the Mexican War. His first task was to transport Fremont's troops to San Diego. Streeter then picks up the narrative, “After conveying Fremont and his battalion from Monterey to San Diego and participating in the taking of San Blas, DuPont entered the Gulf of California, seized La Paz, and at Guaymas burned the Mexican fleet. Within a few months he had cleared the Gulf, and in 1847 aided Commodore Shubrick in the occupation of Mazatlan, and later led his troops to the rescue of the American forces at Mission San Jose.” He returned home to public congratulations from the Secretary of the Navy and continued his rise, eventually becoming a Rear Admiral. This book is not well-known as it was printed privately in a run of about 50 copies. Parke Bernet said in 1959, “Although the work contains the richest mass of first-hand source material extant on the conquest of California...it has remained virtually unknown and entirely unused to this day.” Item 37. $6,500.

The Oregon Trail may have opened the West to a handful of hardy settlers, but what really opened the West to all was the opening of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. Construction began in 1863, but years earlier, several plans were proposed to build a transcontinental railroad. Here are two. The first came from Asa Whitney. He was the first to make a serious attempt to get Congress to appropriate the land and funds to begin construction. He proposed a more northerly route than eventually adopted. This is one of his initial proposals, Memorial of A. Whitney, Praying Grant of Public Land to Enable Him to Construct a Railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean. It contains a map showing a route crossing through Iowa and over South Pass, after which it fades away. He had not yet determined the remainder of the route. While Whitney ended up throwing in the towel on his proposal, he did live long enough to see the Pacific Railroad completed. Item 141. $350.

The second early transcontinental railroad proposal offered in this catalogue came from P. P. F. Degrand, a founder of the Boston Stock Exchange. He also was a major shareholder in railroads in the East. His long booklet title explains his intentions: Proceedings of the Friends of a Rail-Road to San Francisco, at Their Public Meeting, Held at the U.S. Hotel, in Boston, April 19, 1849. Including an Address to the People of the U. States; Showing that P. P. F. Degrand's Plan is the Only One, as yet Proposed, Which will Secure Promptly and Certainly, and by a Single Act of Legislation, the Construction of a Railroad to California, in the Shortest Time Allowed by Its Physical Obstacles. DeGrand thought it would take four years to complete, perhaps a bit optimistic since a route had not yet been surveyed, but he planned to have crews working two or three shifts a day. He estimated the cost to be $100 million. Of course, the timing would have been perfect to make money since 1849 was the year of the California Gold Rush. His railroad would have connected in St. Louis to existing rail lines with its the terminus to be in San Francisco. Degrand points out that it would enable mail to be delivered from anywhere in the U.S. to the west coast in seven days. He died in 1855, long before his dream was achieved. Item 105. $300.

John Muir's name is practically synonymous with conservation and preservation, particularly in California. He spent much of his time in the wilderness and was instrumental in the creation of Yosemite National Park. However, Muir did not spend all of his time in California. Among his travels were visits to Alaska. Item 88 is Travels in Alaska by John Muir, published in 1915. Muir visited Alaska in 1879, 1880, and 1890, though it took some time for him to get around to completing his book. He was in his final illness at the time and it was left to his assistant and literary executor to bring it to publication after his death. Item 88. $2,500.

Thomas Brassey, second Earl Brassey, inherited substantial wealth. His grandfather built railroads all over the world (except America). He was a Captain in the Navy, an industrialist though not too deeply involved, and ran for Parliament a couple of times, unsuccessfully. Basically, he was a man of independent wealth. He was a traveler, as befits a person of his stature. After leaving Oxford, he spent most of the next four years traveling. This book is his Diary of a Hunting Trip, published in 1889. The diary is an account of a hunting trip that took him to southern Wyoming in the summer of 1888. That was the sort of thing people of great means did in those days. This book comes from his traveling days (1884-1888). He was self-admittedly not much of a hunter but he was not an obsessive western hunter like Theodore Roosevelt, so that was all right. His mother, Anna, or Lady Brassey, was also a popular writer. She wrote about trips in their yacht, the Sunbeam. Sadly, she took ill on one of their trips in 1887 and was buried at sea. Thomas was not so unfortunate. Item 13. $12,500.

The George S. MacManus Co. may be reached at 610-520-7273 or books@macmanus-rarebooks.com. Their website is www.macmanus-rarebooks.com.