Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2004 Issue
American Cartography From<br>William Reese
The first depiction of America's northwest coast
One of the rare books describing Indian life during the Civil War period is Among the Indians. Eight Years in the Far West: 1858-1866 by Henry Boller. Boller was a trader for the American Fur Company who spent these years in Montana and the Northwest. Toward the end of the period, he spent time with the Mormon community in Salt Lake, and he writes about this too. Recent reprints of his journey are readily available for those interested in reading about them, but this copy is an 1868 first printed in Philadelphia, and includes the folding map. Item 11. $6,000.
For those who collect particularly targeted geographic areas, Reese offers a group of early maps and other material pertaining to specific American counties. Those covered include Rockingham, New Hampshire; Middlesex, Massachusetts; Hartford and Litchfield, Connecticut; Lincoln, Maine; and Suffolk, Dutchess, and Saratoga, New York.
There are also extensive collections pertaining to Delaware County and the city of Utica, New York, from Martha Bradstreet. Mrs. Bradstreet was an English step-granddaughter of General John Bradstreet, a hero of the French and Indian War who had been granted a substantial amount of land in the area. She came to the United States in 1799 to claim what she felt was hers. By this time, much of this land had been settled by others who believed they had obtained good title. Mrs. Bradstreet would spend much of her life trying to regain this land, with limited success. She was at times represented by Aaron Burr, the duelist and almost President, who had long since been thoroughly discredited when he began representing Mrs. Bradstreet. However, she represented herself most of the time, as she evidently flooded the residents of this part of upstate New York with lawsuits for decades. Some see her as something of a pioneer in women's rights for taking initiatives virtually unheard of for women in her day, but her contemporaries must have thoroughly despised her for wreaking legal havoc on their lives. At one point she even petitioned Congress to impeach Federal Judge Alfred Conkling. Presumably he must not have been acting as she wished with her lawsuits, but the Judiciary Committee recommended that no action be taken. Item 124 covers Delaware County material ($25,000) while item 174 includes the Utica items ($20,000).
The William Reese Company is located on the internet at www.reeseco.com and they may be reached by phone at 203-789-8081.
