Handwritten letter, two pages on a single 8" x 5" sheet of letterhead from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College, dated January 19, 1869. Folding creases from mailing, else fine. Brewer (1828-1910) was a naturalist and explorer who was recruited in 1860 by Whitney, the California State Geologist, to lead the botanical department of the newly established California Geological Survey. "During the survey he collected 2,000 plants, studied California forests, and measured the giant sequoias....[He] also made geologic collections and discussed volcanic geology, glaciers, minerals, and fossils in his journal and reports....Brewer worked on the survey in California for four years; during the fourth he was offered the chair of agriculture at Yale's Sheffield Scientific School. In the first three years of the survey he had traveled 13,507 miles, including more than 6,000 on horseback and nearly 3,000 on foot....He accepted the Yale appointment and moved to New Haven, Connecticut, in 1865" (ANB). In this letter to Whitney, who was by then a Professor of Geology at Harvard, he discusses his plans to spend the summer in Cambridge and to deliver two lectures there, concluding "If I can stay with you as you speak of, it will certainly be an accommodation and a saving of time. I am in excellent health again, rather too fat, and have more to do this term than I had last." Letters by Brewer are quite scarce in the marketplace, and this one is particularly desirable for its association with one of the most notable of Brewer's colleagues and friends. (Item #24185)

[New Haven, CT]: 1924. 10.5" x 8.5", 7 pp, with three maps. Old horizontal holding creases, light general handling wear; very good. A scarce circular by one of the first people to voice strong opposition to logging in Yosemite National Park. A scarce circular by one of the first people to voice strong opposition to logging in Yosemite National Park. Van Name (1872-1959) was a zoologist and tireless advocate for the preservation of the scenic beauty, wildlife, and forests of the United States. Here he laments the insufficiency of Federal appropriations for the preservation and care of Yosemite and describes how the park's boundaries have been gradually reduced through reallocation of timberlands to the Forest Service and private lumber and railroad interests. In conclusion, he asks: "Can excuses or arguments alter the facts that of the wonderful 200 foot sugar and yellow pines within the original park limits the lumbermen are getting 95 percent and the public are keeping perhaps 5 per cent. . . that of the three sequoia groves two are still, after 33 years, in private ownership. . . that the park is now only two-thirds its original size, and that more trimming of its boundaries is being urged by the National Park Service? ARE THESE THINGS THAT SHOULD GO ON IN A NATIONAL PARK? Have we no organizations, newspapers, or even influential private citizens independent or public spirited-enough to take the lead in this emergency and give these abuses the publicity that will stop them? Two copies located in OCLC. (Item #24206)

Washington: Department of the Interior, Government Printing Office, 1912. 9" x 6", 47 pp, with photographic illustrations. double-page map of Yosemite National Park, in original stapled wrappers. Minor damage to head of spine, small chip missing from bottom edge of front wrapper, else fine. Francois Emile Matthes (1874-1948) was a geologist and topographer who spent most of his career with the United States Geological Survey mapping remote regions of the American west. He is best known for his contributions to scientific understanding of the geological formation of the Yosemite region, which he mapped for the USGS in 1905-06. In this pamphlet he emphasizes the significance and beauty of the parts of the park beyond Yosemite Valley (notably the Hetch Hetchy Valley and Tuolumne Canyon), provides a brief overview of the history of the Park and the evolution of its boundaries, and describes for the general reader how the region’s principal geological and topographical features were formed. (Item #24228)

San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft & Company, 1871. 6.5" x 4.5", pp 256 + lviii (ads), in original paper-covered boards printed in black and red. Dated 1871 on the title page, but with "corrected for 1872" printed at top of front board, and with one leaf (2 pp of text) of "Changes for 1872" inserted prior to the title page. Corners rubbed, some small splits in paper at joints, small stain at fore edge of front board, internally sound and clean. Very good. A well-preserved copy of this somewhat delicate early guide book, which includes an extensive section on Yosemite. Currey & Kruska 5: "Pages [7]-71 comprise a guide to Yosemite Valley and the Calaveras, Mariposa, and 'southern' giant sequoia groves. Describes northern routes to the valley with rates for hotels, livery, and guides. Reissued in 1872 with an inserted leaf listing "changes for 1872" and two plates, one in color, in the advertising section. " This copy has the two plates (both San Francisco scenes), but neither is in color. (Item #24174)

San Francisco: 1908. 9" x 5.5", 15, [1] pp, stapled self wrappers. Light foxing, old vertical folding crease; very good. The debate over the Hetchy Hetchy project produced a flurry of literature during this time period. Dunn, a water and mining engineer who had done work for the City of San Francisco in the past, argues here against the plan for various financial (rather than preservation) reasons. In contemporary newspaper accounts, his opponents dismissed him has having a personal stake in one of the competing plans to provide water to the city. Three copies found in OCLC. (Item #24196)

Yo Semite Valley [and] Oakland, Cal. At Old Cabin [and] Pacific Press Publishing, 1888. Early reprint (first published 1886). 8vo, pp. xii, 496, extensively illustrated with wood engravings and phototypes, two maps (one folding). Publisher's ochre pictorial cloth with decoration in brown and gilt. Corners lightly bumped and rubbed, small indent to fore edge of front board, spine lettering a bit faded (but fully legible), internally clean and sound. Very good. Currey & Kruska (175) describe this as Hutchings' "most ambitious literary undertaking," noting that "It covers, more fully than any other work of the period, every aspect of the Yosemite Valley and the big trees that could be considered of general interest to visitors. The work is an important primary source for information on the early human history of the region. Hutchings is still considered an authority on early climbs in Yosemite and his accounts of these ascents are of great value." Farquhar (18) comments that "the illustrations are the finest that could be procured at the time." (Item #24168)

Southern Pacific Company, 1911. Folded brochure, 4" x 9", 30 pp, with double-page Map of the Kings and Kern Rivers Region, smaller map of Southern Pacific Lines to the Kings and Kern Regions, and many illustrations from photographs. Center gathering detached from staples, which are rusted, otherwise very good. . Published three decades before the establishment of Kings Canyon National Park, this brochure promotes Kings River Canyon as "a second Yosemite." The Southern Pacific brought travelers to Visalia, where they could connect with an electric railway to Lemon Cove, followed by a stage for the California Grove of Big Trees, then General Grant National Park and Camp Kanawyer, where travelers could expect "shelter and good beds" and "a dinner of fresh trout fried in pure olive oil." Other destinations described in the brochure include Paradise Canon, the gorge of Tehipite, Camp Sierra, the Bubbe Creek Trail, and Kearsarge Pass. (Item #24230)

Boston and New York: Alexander Moore [and] Lee, Shepard & Dillingham, 1872. Third edition, revised and enlarged; second printing. Small quarto, pp. [v-x], xi-xii, 13-98, with two maps and 20 original mounted albumen photographs credited to Boston photographer John Soule. In publisher's green cloth with beveled edges; front board decorated in gilt, black, and rose; all edges gilt; each text page and each photograph bordered in red. A very good copy with rubbing and fraying to corners and spine ends, bookplate of Canadian bookseller and collector G. Ducharme on front pastedown, handwritten date of December 15, 1872 on front free endpaper, evidence of an erased ink stamp on title page. Lacks tissue guard over plate facing p. 35, all others present. Contents sound and clean. This is the rarest and most desirable edition of this work, as it is the only one to contain 20 (rather than 10) mounted photographs. Kneeland (1821-1888) was a physician, naturalist, and Professor of Zoology and Physiology at MIT. This book is based on his first visit to the Yosemite Valley in 1870, and includes a narrative of his trip from and return to Boston. "Kneeland made every effort to obtain current and accurate information and each of the later editions of the guide incorporates new material....Weston J. Naef [in his book Era of Exploration, the Rise of Landscape Photography in the American West, 1860-1885]...comments that the photographs 'are curious because there is no evidence that Soule, a talented landscape photographer, was ever in California...[which] suggests that he might have purchased the negatives from a California photographer, not an uncommon transaction'" (Currey & Kruska 225). Eadweard Muybridge and Martin Hazeltine are both considered strong candidates to have been the actual photographer. Farqhuar #10; Cowan p. 333. Only two copies of this edition have appeared at auction in the past 30 years, and there are no others on the market as of September 2025. (Item #24160)

Folded brochure, 4" x 9", with 6 panels printed on both sides. No publication information provided, but refers readers to both the Peck-Judah Company of San Francisco and J.B. Cook of Yosemite Valley for further information. Undated, but likely 1909. Includes a map of Yosemite Valley, several nice illustrations from photographs, a list of mountains and waterfalls with both their English and Indian names, and details of accommodations and rates at the Sentinel Hotel, Glacier Point Hotel, and Camp Lost Arrow (formerly Camp Yosemite). Good condition, with some wear to the bottom edge, short split along one fold. (Item #24224)

Washington: 1883. The map measures 17" x 20" and is folded into dark green cloth covers (6" x 4") with title stamped in gilt. Near fine, with a few small splits at intersections. Printed by the Heliotype Printing Co., Boston. Uncommon "preliminary edition" of this important early Yosemite map, prepared from a topographical plat by Lt. Macomb based on the work of the Wheeler Survey, which documented and mapped the United States west of the 100th meridian in the 1870s. In addition to showing the topography of the region in remarkable detail, the map shows park boundaries, many named peaks and natural features, roads and trails, camps and cabins, orchards, pastureland, a cemetery, saw mill, slaughterhouse, hay shed, and other features of human settlement and development. (Item #24205)