California and Alaska Over the Canadian Pacific Railway
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1890.
First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Limited to 500 copies printed at the Knickerbocker Press. xix, 190 pp, with 4 etched plates and 88 photogravures. Bound in full morocco, with intricate stamping in blind and gilt, designed by Alice C. Morse. "It is by far the most expensive book that Morse is known to have designed, and was sold on publication for the high price of $25" (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Scattered foxing and spotting throughout, front and rear blank pages stained, rubbing to extremities; all else very good. Webb (1851-1926) began his career as a physician, but turned to business–and the railroad industry in particular–after marrying into the Vanderbilt family. His railroads were instrumental in opening the Adirondacks to tourism in the late nineteenth century. This beautifully illustrated volume documents aprivate rail journey taken by Webb and several friends and family members through the American and Canadian West, with stops at Denver, Colorodo Springs, Santa Fe, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Monterey, the Yosemite Valley, San Francisco, Montana, the Canadian Rockies, Vancouver, Sitka, and Victoria. The text contains much interesting historical and descriptive detail. Cowan p. 672; Smith 10804; Wickersham 6481; Tourville 4764.
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