Report of an Expedition Down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers by Sitgreaves, L - 1853

Washington, D.C.: Robert Armstrong, 1853. First Edition . Hardcover. Fair. Senate Ex. Doc. 59, 32d Congress, 2nd Session. First Edition with seventy-nine plates and usual first state numbering problems: 23 Landscape plates, numbered 1-13 and 15-21 with three unnumbered plates at end; 6 Mammal plates; 5 Bird plates, with no Plate II as usual, numbered 1 and then 3-6; 21 Reptile plates with two plates marked Plate 10, Plate 12 marked Plate 11, and Plate 14 marked either Plate 18 or 13; 3 Fish plates, and 21 Plant plates with the last being Aploppus Nuttalii. 8vo, three-quarter leather by unknown binder with name S.H. Walley (presume this is U.S. Representative Samuel H. Walley from Massachusetts) stamped at bottom of spine; fair (boards loose, almost detached, and only held in place with new cords by a binder; in other words, not completely restored; joints torn; marbled paper on boards heavily rubbed and worn; edges of boards heavily worn and scraped; spine creased, scraped, and scarred; leather on top third of spine lifting away along torn front joint; triangular piece at spine head threatening to chip off; corners worn to boards; marbled eps do not match marbled boards; hinges broken; endpapers split at hinges; bookplate on front pastedown; pencil writing on verso of ffep; owner's signature, pasted note, and pasted newspaper article on first blank flyleaf; scattered but minimal foxing to text; plates toning around edges; tears to foreedge and creased upper corners on Plates 13-21; large map is good+ with toning, several repaired tears at hinge and a number of small holes where folds intersect). This copy belonged to Ruthven Deane (1851-1934), famous ornithologist, scholar and bookplate collector; his bookplate is on marbled front pastedown. He was an early President of the Illinois Audubon Society, which preceded the National Audubon Society. On the first of 2 blank pages is the signature "Ruthven Deane, 1.Mch.1849." Beneath this, in a different pen, he had begun to write "List of birds" but the ink was bleeding, so he wrote on a thick card, "List of birds by Dr. S.W. Woodhouse on page 58, Also autograph letter of the author. R. Deane." He pasted this card in, along with a newspaper notice of Woodhouse's death, dated 24 Oct. 1904. Samuel Washington Woodhouse (1821-1904; note that both men lived 83 years) lost the use of a finger to a rattlesnake bite on this expedition; apparently his companions advised him that the best treatment was to stay drunk all night. The AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED by Woodhouse is tipped in at p. 58, where his section on birds begins; he also wrote the section on Mammals, and the Medical Report. It was written to Mr. Deane in Philadelphia on May 28th, 1900, and concerns an upcoming trip to Boston on the way to Maine.