The Seat of Empire
Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co., 1870.
First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. pp. viii, 232 with 5 plates and a folding map (16" x 42", partially colored) in a rear pocket, 11 pages of ads at rear, several for railroads. Publisher's rust cloth stamped in gilt. Chipping to spine ends, corners rubbed, contemporary owner's inscription in pencil on front free endpaper, map with small tears at the folds. Coffin (who generally went by "Carleton") was a well-known Civil War correspondent. This account of "the physical features of the vast reach of country lying between the Lakes and the Pacific, not only in the United States, but in British America as well" was based on his own travels as well as "the most trustworthy accounts of persons who have lived there" and the work of survey engineers. The map, he says, is "the most complete map ever published of the country between the 36th and 55th parallel...showing not only the entire railway system of the Eastern and Middle States, but also the Union Pacific Railroad and the Northern Pacific, now under construction." Includes discussion of northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Red River Valley, Dakota Territory, Oregon, and the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Smith 1859, Graff 793.
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