A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America: Containing a Succinct Account of its Soil, Climate, Natural History, Population, Agriculture, Manners, and Customs...
London: J. Debrett, 1797.
Hardcover. Good. Third and most complete edition of this work, "in which form it was the most informative compilation on the West at the end of the 18th century" (Streeter). 8vo, xii, 598 pp + index in modern leather binding with new modern endpapers and flyleaves, with four folding maps -- three original and one in a nicely made facsimile. The three original maps are: A Map of The Western Part of the Territories belonging to the United States of America (with splits, small losses, archival repairs to verso); A Plan of the Rapids of the Ohio; and A Map of the Tennassee [sic] Government Formerly Part of North Carolina. The facsimile is A Map of the State of Kentucky from Actual Survey by Elihu Barker of Philadelphia. The most important eighteenth-century guide to the Trans-Allegheny region. Imlay was a surveyor and land speculator in Kentucky, and the first part of this book (and the entirety of the first edition) consists of a series of descriptive letters designed to attract settlers to the interior. This is followed by Filson's important work on the history of Kentucky, Boone's autobiographical account, and other valuable material, including Thomas Jefferson's 1791 "Report of the Secretary of State...of the Quantity and Situation of the Lands not Claimed by the Indians...." Field 747; Howes I-12; Sabin 34358; Streeter Sale 1525.
Item #24060
Price: $2,000.00