Teichmann, Emil; Teichmann, Oskar (Editor)

A Journey to Alaska in the Year 1868: Being a Diary of the Late Emil Teichmann

Kensington: Cayme Press, 1925.

First Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Very Good. Copy 91 of only 100 copies printed. 272 pp, 20 X16 cm, with frontis portrait, 2 maps, and many sketches by the author. Original cloth binding with leather spine label; top edge gilt. Fore edge of boards rubbed, mild foxing to both front and rear endpapers. Binding tight, contents clean. Teichmann was sent to Alaska in 1868 (just after it became an American territory) to protect the interests of his employers, J.M. Oppenheim and Company, who had negotiated a lucrative contract for Alaskan furs with the Russian American Fur Company. He was situated in Sitka, and much of the diary provides a lively and detailed account of the area and the commercial and recreational activities and cultural interactions of the region's potent multinational mix of prospectors, traders, settlers, speculators, and native peoples. There is also much detail on the journey up the coast from San Francisco and through the Inside Passage, with accounts of the settlements visited along the way. Tourville 4477; Graff 4096; Howes T88; Smith (Pacific Northwest Americana) 10161.