This rare, superb original lithographed engraving is from the U.S.P.R.R (United States Pacific Railroad) 'Reports of Explorations & Surveys', commissioned by act of congress in 1853/4.
This Fox is one of my absolute favorites from the entire collection.
The Volumes:
The 'Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean' was published in 12 volumes from 1855–1860. A prior act of congress commissioned the survey of the 47th & 49th Parallels, from which this print originates.
They are a fascinating, historical account of America the Beautiful west of the Mississippi at the last moment when it was all still largely pristine & untouched by the vast settlement, industrialism, mining & agriculture which would soon follow as swarms of settlers headed west. A Trans-Continental Railroad to San Francisco was completed in 1869.
The work contained a group of magnificent full-page plates covering zoology, anthropology, maps & botany, drawn by a committed group of the superb artists of the day working out in the most rugged wilds of North America, traveling on horses & on foot, roughing it in tents in the weather with their sketchbooks.
The Pacific Railroad Survey of the 47th and 49th parallels explored the wilderness of Washington Territory under the the command of Governor Isaac I. Stevens. In 1853, U.S. Congress allotted $150,000 towards six expeditions to find the most practical path to carry a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Governor Isaac I. Stevens led the northern-most survey along the 47th to 49th parallels. In April 1853 George Suckley was appointed assistant surgeon and naturalist to the Pacific Railroad Survey of the 47th and 49th parallels between St. Paul, Minnesota, and Fort Vancouver, Washington Territory. The survey included a 1,049 mile, 53-day canoe trip down the Bitter Root, Clark's Fork, and Columbia Rivers to Fort Vancouver, during which time extensive natural history collections were made. Due to the difficult terrain, the expedition was divided into two divisions, which later converged at the Columbia Basin. The eastern division was led by Stevens and was accompanied by Suckley. The western division, which commenced from Washington Territory and explored potential passes through the Cascade Mountains, was led by Captain George B. McClellan and was accompanied by naturalists George Gibbs and James G. Cooper. The expedition moved into the Great Plains region near the Columbia River.
This plate is from the survey for the US Pacific Railroad, in particular from the report by Lieutenant Henry L Abbot, on the routes in Oregon and California explored by parties under the command of Lieutenant R. S. Williamson, in 1855 (from the Sacramento Valley to the Columbia River).
The Artist:
This one is signed by J. H. Richards.
The Plates & Technique:
This appears to be a lithograph of an engraving, the fine lines would have been transferred to the lithographic stone via transfer paper, then sometimes additional shading appears to have been added in the stone.
Lithography was first invented in 1796 in Germany, and came to the United States about 1819. Lithographs were created by drawing an image onto a smooth stone, usually limestone, treated with chemicals, and then printed on paper.
“Lithography, as we understand it today, is the art of printing from a perfectly flat stone, on which the pattern is neither raised in relief nor cut in intaglio. The lithographic stone, which is an amorphous limestone, dense in texture whithout being hard, …[and] has a great affinity for fat. … The drawing on the stone is made with the lithographic crayon, consisting of soap, wax and lampblack, … The drawing, when finished, undergoes an operation called technically ‘the preparation.’ It consists in flowing over the face of the stone the gum Arabic solution acidulated with nitric acid. The acid neutralizes the alkali of the soup in the crayon and ink, sets the fat free, and in doing so creates a permanent union of this fat with the stone by forming lime soap, insoluble in water.” (New York Tribune)
This print was individually printed from stone by hand.
Condition:
Good condition for an original plate this old. Typical minor antiquarian character, Very little age-toning,faint damp stain.
These prints are very old & may have minor imperfections expected with age, such as some typical age-toning of the paper, spots, text-offsetting, artifacts from having been bound into (& removed from) a book & various handling, etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully.
Text Page(s): This one comes without original text pages which were likely published in their own volumes. Included in the photos is a scan of a title page from one of the related volumes, which is for reference & not part of the listing.
Size: 11-1/2"x 8-3/4" approximately.
Combined Shipping:
Yes! Multiple prints can be combine into one Priority Mail flat-rate envelope or package. Larger prints may need to be shipped in tube. eBay should auto-combine your items if you put all of your selections into your shopping cart & check out all together as one order. If you purchase them individually, eBay charges shipping on each, which I then will refund after. If you're assessed multiple shipping charges for one combined package, I will endeavor to refund any overage asap.
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Please note: The information I've included in this listing is based on my best research & observations as an enthusiast of these works, not a professional historian of antiquarian books & prints. I do like to offer some background information readily available to me but make no claims representations of total accuracy. Any corrections or further information you might offer would certainly appreciated! The scans in the images are my best efforts to accurately show the item. Antique prints & old paper are notoriously tricky to scan accurately. In my experience, scanners tend to be thrown off by the off-whites & gradations in age-toned paper. If the scanner produces a scan that's too dark or too brown, etc, I'll often try to reasonably color-correct to represent the print as accurately as possible. I'm not a professional in color-correcting images yet I try my best to show the print as close to the original as possible. I also find that different monitors show colors differently, & eBay's system can sometimes throw off the colors a bit in the uploaded JPEG images as they appear on their site. Thank you!