Description
Type of resource
text
Form
unmediated
volume
Extent
1 volume : 2 maps ; 32 x 27 cm
Imprint
New York (State), 1868
Issuance
monographic
publisher
New York : Julius Bien, 1868.
Language
English
Creators/Contributors
- Associated with
- Whitney, J. D.
- The New York Lithographing, Engraving and Printing Company.
- California Geological Survey
Subjects
- Subject
- Photographs > California > Yosemite National Park > 19th century
- California > Maps > 19th century
- Yosemite National Park (Calif.) > Maps > 19th century
- Yosemite Valley (Calif.) > Maps > 19th century
- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.) > Maps > 19th century
- Calaveras Big Trees State Park (Calif.) > Maps > 19th century
- Genre
- Text
- Maps.
- Photobooks.
Bibliographic information
- Note
- First edition, first printing. Issued in early 1869, although dated 1868. It sold for $10. One of the early and finest Yosemite books, the result of a government survey begun in 1863 under the direction of Josiah Dwight Whitney, the State Geologist, with Clarence King and James T. Gardner in the surveying party, and Carleton Watkins as the primary photographer. Charles Hoffman and William Brewer were other key team members. Josiah Dwight Whitney’s and the California Geological Survey’s The Yosemite Book was an early effort to domesticate the Sierra, to make the range accessible through scientific knowledge and reliable travel information. This is a beautiful book, a stunning government publication, designed to match the rugged beauty of the mountains in text, photographs, and maps. This volume includes 24 Carleton Watkins photographs and four by W. Harris. Photographically illustrated books were an unusual form of publication in the 19th Century. The use of photographic prints in books became possible only after Frederick Scott Archer’s 1851 discovery of the wet-plate collodion process combining speed and sharpness while being capable of producing multiple copies of a print on paper. This process enabled the inclusion of photographs in books. The printing run of 250 copies of The Yosemite Book used 7,000 photographic prints! The two maps are: "Map of the Yosemite Valley from Surveys made by order of the Commissioners to manage the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove by C. King and J.T. Gardner," and "Map of a portion of the Sierra Nevada adjacent to the Yosemite Valley from surveys made by Chs. F. Hoffmann and J.T. Gardner, 1863-67." These maps are among the most detailed and largest scale maps published of Yosemite during this part of the 19th century, rivaled only by the Wheeler Survey map of Yosemite published in 1883. Much of the text in this note is taken from writings of Jim Snyder, formerly Historian for Yosemite National Park. Quarter bound in gray cloth with leather spine, corners and front cover label embossed in gilt, "The Yosemite Book." Spine labeled the same and includes much gilt decoration. Edges of pages in gilt. Very modest wear.
- Guide Book.
- Local note
- Pub list no.: 5949.000.
- Location
- electronic resource
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction:
- Image from the David Rumsey Map Collection courtesy Stanford University Libraries. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce commercially, please contact the David Rumsey Map Center at rumseymapcenter@stanford.edu.
- Copyright:
- Property rights reside with the repository, Copyright © Stanford University. Images may be reproduced or transmitted, but not for commercial use. For commercial use or commercial republication, contact rumseymapcenter@stanford.edu This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. By downloading any images from this site, you agree to the terms of that license.
- License:
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License