[Kansas]. Hamilton, W[illia]m, & S[amuel] M. Irvin. An Ioway Grammar. Ioway and Sac Mission Press, 1848

[KANSAS]

WILLIAM HAMILTON AND SAMUEL M. IRVIN. AN IOWAY GRAMMAR, ILLUSTRATING THE PRINCIPLES OF THE LANGUAGE USED BY THE IOWAY, OTOE AND MISSOURI INDIANS. [INDIAN TERRITORY (PRESENT-DAY KANSAS)]: IOWAY AND SAC MISSION PRESS, 1848

12mo (6 1/2 x 4 in.; 165 x 102 mm). Lightly browned. Early brick-colored buckram, upper cover gilt-lettered: some wear and rubbing.

First edition. Printed on the Ioway and Sac Mission handpress in present-day Kansas, six years before Kansas Territory was established. Hamilton and Irvin were missionaries to Iowa and Missouri Sac Indians on Wolf Creek in northeastern Kansas.

The primitive printing is explained on the verso of the title-page: "Any defect, which may appear in the mechanical execution of this work, will be accounted for, when it is remembered that this little press at the station, on which it has been done, is provided with only two kinds of type, and that our experience in the art has been acquired entirely in the Indian country, and without any instructor."

LITERATURE:

Ayer Indian Linguistics Iowa 2; Gilcrease p. 238; Graff 1757; McMurtrie & Allen Forgotten Pioneer Press of Kansas 6; Pilling Siouan p. 33; Sabin 30041 & 35107

PROVENANCE:

Frank T. Siebert (acquired John Fleming, 1962; sold his sale, Sotheby's New York, 28 October 1999, lot 1035)