EMORY, WILLIAM H. | Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, Made Under the Direction of the Secretary of the Interior. Washington: A.O.P. Nicholson, 1857-1859

Property from the Sporting and Travel Library of Arnold "Jake" Johnson

EMORY, WILLIAM H. 

Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, Made Under the Direction of the Secretary of the Interior. Washington: A.O.P. Nicholson, 1857-1859

Two volumes bound as three, 4to (11 5/16 x 8 3/4 in.; 288 x 221 mm). Engraved frontispiece, 4 folding maps and charts, one hand-colored, 368 plates, 37 of which hand-colored, on 346 leaves, in-text illustrations; some foxing, offsetting, toning, closed tear to final map. Modern half blue morocco over marbled boards, spines with raised bands in six compartments, second, third, and fourth gilt-lettered.

First edition of "one of the most significant of all government reports on western and southern Texas" (Jenkins). Emory was made chief astronomer for determining the official American-Mexican boundary line, following this, he was appointed United States Boundary Commissioner in 1854. Due to Emory's accuracy, the boundary he suggested remains largely unchanged 150 years after his original survey. The first volume of Emory's report was published 1857, and Congress disapproved of the project's high production costs. Consequently, fewer than one third as many copies of the subsequent volumes were printed, making complete sets of this work particularly rare.

REFERENCE:

Howes E146; Sabin 22538; Wagner-Camp 291; Wheat, Transmississippi West 916