American Natural History from William Reese
American Natural History from William Reese.
By Michael Stillman
This month, the William Reese Company has issued its 239th catalogue, "American Natural History." These are primarily North American items from the 18th and 19th centuries, although many were printed in Europe, the work of foreign explorers and visitors come to the New World. Many of the books are illustrated, and while these illustrations were intended to depict various flora and fauna unknown to their reader, they have effectively become works of art. We can substitute photographs for Audubon's drawings of birds for scientific examination, but those images will never be quite the same as Audubon's.
Item 48 recounts one of the most important scientific voyages undertaken, though it may not have been clear at the time. It is the 1839 four-volume set Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, Between the Years 1826 and 1836.... Robert Fitzroy, who commanded the voyage, edited the set. However, it is the third volume that is most interesting. This contains the observations of Charles Darwin, who served on the Beagle. A separate edition of just the third volume was published later in the year to meet demand for Darwin's work. It was the observations he made on this voyage that would lead to Darwin's revolutionary "Origin of the Species" a few years down the road. Priced at $25,000.
Logging of public forests is an important concern today, but it is hardly a new one. Here is a broadside from Jacksonville, dated Sept. 29, 1842, signed by H.L. Thistle, a federal agent for preserving timber on public land in East Florida. The broadside is headed, An Act to Provide for the Punishment of Offences Committed in Cutting, Destroying, or Removing Live Oak and Other Timber or Trees.... The scheme that Thistle evidently uncovered involved large contractors importing many men, ostensibly coming as settlers. However, their real purposes was to gain dominion to the tracts of land, so as to turn it over to the contractors for logging. As Thistle said, the contractors, "under the name of the settlers would take millions and millions of dollars worth of timber from public lands...." Perhaps we could use Agent Thistle today. Item 59. $1,750.
Another early environmental report is found in the 1880 Special Report of New York State Survey of the Preservation of the Scenery of Niagara Falls. This report by James T. Gardiner calls on the state to buy land surrounding the Falls to protect them from "defacements" and "repulsive scenery" resulting from development. Included is a five-page endorsement of the report by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead and nine photographs of the Falls by George Barker. Item 63. $675.
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American Natural History from William Reese
Audubon's Trumpeter Swan.
Here is another New York item, and it is quite spectacular: Natural History of New York. The New York Natural History and Geological Survey, formed by the state legislature in 1836, commissioned this work. It grew beyond all expectations. By the time it was finished, it consisted of 30 volumes, published over a period of more than 50 years. The first 17 volumes were published from 1842-1854. The final volume was to be paleontology, but, Reese explains, state paleontologist James Hall managed to turn the project into a lifetime career. Instead of one volume, paleontology grew to thirteen, the final one published in 1894 when Hall was 83-years-old. Hall's job security left us with a wonderful record of New York's natural history, but today a complete collection is extremely rare. Item 114. $25,000.
One of the most important narratives of the early American South is found in William Bartram's Travels Through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida, The Cherokee Country.... Published in 1791, this first edition recounts Bartram's explorations, telling us much about the region's natural history as well as the Indians who resided in the territory. Howes describes it as, "A work of high character well meriting its wide esteem." Item 23. $20,000. If that's a bit pricey for your budget, item 24 is the first London edition of the same work from 1792. $6,000. Or, providing you understand German, item 25 is the first German edition from 1793, Reisen Durch Nord und Sud Karolina, Georgien.... $2,000.
Sticking to a Southern theme, item 118 is Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests....Being a Medical Botany of the Confederate States.... by Francis Porcher. Porcher was a major figure in southern medical circles, having founded a hospital for slaves in Charleston in 1855. The late 1850s found Porcher involved in using the microscope to find the cause of disease, a very recent development at the time. However, his studies were disrupted by the Civil War. Porcher was needed by the Confederacy to help find medical cures using indigenous plants and local remedies, the South having been cut off from most outside resources. The result was this book, published in 1863. It has been called one of the most important works of the Confederacy. $6,000.
Women shared men's interest in natural history during the 19th century, but their role in society made it hard for them to be treated as equal scientists. One of the results was a genre of books with illustrations of plants and animals by women, but they were accompanied by poetry instead of scientific data. It was okay for women to write or republish poetry; they just couldn't be scientists. An example of such a work is Laura Munson's Flowers from my Garden....with an Introductory Poem by Mrs. L.H. Sigourney. Published in 1864, it contains 18 hand-colored plates, each accompanied by a poem. Item 112. $3,000.
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American Natural History from William Reese
The Great Water Lily of America by John Fisk Allen.
Item 102 is a one-of-a-kind collection of important historical sketches. At the conclusion of the Mexican War, a survey of the new border was undertaken by the Boundary Commission. The boundary had been set by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, and ran from the Gulf of Mexico, up the Rio Grande to the southern border of New Mexico, westward along that border to the Gila river (now in Arizona), to the Colorado River, and finally, along the border between Upper and Lower California. This collection of 49 sketches was made during the survey, most drawn by John Weyss. Commission leader William Emory explained that the sketches were made "to perpetuate the evidences of the location of the boundary, in the event of the Indians removing the monuments erected on the ground." The Indians never got the chance. Just a few years later, the portion of the boundary herein displayed, from the banks of the Rio Grande north of El Paso to central Arizona, would be moved south as a result of the Gadsden Purchase. $50,000.
If you need an excuse for drinking too much coffee, here's one: The Virtue and Use of Coffee, with regard to the Plague, and Other Infectious Diseases. Author Richard Bradley believed coffee could cure the plague. Today Westerners drink huge amounts of coffee and the plague is rarely encountered. A coincidence? You be the judge. Item 34. Published in London in 1721. $850.
As a final note, Reese is offering ten Audubon items. They range from hand-colored engravings to original paintings used in his Birds of America.
The William Reese Company website may be found at www.reeseco.com, while their phone number is 203-789-8081.
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