Report of Explorations for a Railway Route, near the Thirty-Fifth Parallel of North Latitude, from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

WHIPPLE, Lieutenant Amiel Weeks (1818 1863).

Edité par [Washington, D.C.]: [A.O.P. Nicholson for the War Department, 1855].

A propos de cet article

8vo., (10 x 6 inches). 154 pages of text, 6 pages of index, 2 pages of Errata. Self-wrappers, stabbed and sewn as issued (one or two pale stains). Provenance: with one small annotation by Whipple on page 4, his sale from the library of Amiel Weeks Whipple (1818 - 1863), his sale Doyle New York, 5th November 2012, lot 98 THE AUTHOR S OWN COPY of possible PROOF SHEETS for the SCARCE EARLY OCTAVO EDITION OF WHIPPLE S REPORT OF HIS EXPLORATION OF THE 35TH PARALLEL, later published as volume III of the monumental 12 volume "Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practical and Economic Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. 1853-1854." Washington: [Printed by Beverley Tucker], 1855 -1860. In 1849, after completing work with the Northeastern Boundary Survey, Lt. Whipple was assigned to the Mexican Boundary Survey team. "The peace treaty with Mexico was recently signed, and the group was exploring great lengths of land unknown to Americans and Europeans. Whipple s leather-bound [diaries] provide observations of temperature and barometric pressure, descriptions of peaceful encounters with various tribes of American Indians, and detailed drawings of botanical specimens and topographic sites. With the northern and southern borders established and the discovery of gold in California, the United States Congress saw the need for exploration of the interior lands. There was much discussion of a super highway for travelers to safely navigate from the Mississippi River to the pacific coastline. By an act of Congress, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was charged to conduct surveys for the first transcontinental railroad route to the Pacific Ocean, near the 35th parallel. Five teams were sent, the Northern, Central, and coastal Pacific surveys were commissioned along with two Southern Pacific survey teams, one of which was led by Lt. Whipple. The journals of this expedition are very thorough and contain details regarding supplies, the hiring of cooks and assistants, as well as environmental, topographical, and cultural observations. Whipple kept records with meticulous detail, often writing while on horseback or aboard a train, evident through his varied penmanship. "The survey party reached Oklahoma Territory on Friday July 15, 1853. After a lengthy crossing of the Poteau River, the wooden cart which carried men, supplies and surveying equipment, ran into a tree stump and was broken. A summer storm crept up on the team and Lt. Whipple soon found himself walking through knee deep puddles on the prairie. Sunday provided a day of rest for the men and the animals, and by Tuesday July 19, the team had arrived at the Choctaw Agency. Surveying the land and observing the inhabitants gave Lt. Whipple many things to write about, and his journal entries for the month of August are extensive and illustrate his view of the prairie (Jennifer Silvers Oklahoma Historical Society).

N° de réf. du vendeur 72lib972

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Report of Explorations for a Railway Route, near the Thirty-Fifth Parallel of North Latitude, from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.
• Éditeur: [Washington, D.C.]: [A.O.P. Nicholson for the War Department, 1855].
• Reliure: Couverture souple
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