Village Improvements and Farm Villages By Geo. E. Waring, Jr. James R. So good and Company, Boston, 1877, 200 pp, illustrated, brick red cloth, 6.25 x 4.5”, 18mo. 

In good condition. Light wear to extremities with minor scuffing to edges and corners. Light staining to surface of cloth. Modest soiling overall. Bookplate of Maurice Robert Des Marais on front end pastedown. Des Marais was a longtime faculty member in the Department of Architecture at Penn State College of Arts and Architecture and a corporate member of the American Institute of Architects. Old hand ownership of “Mr. Carlos French Seymour, Conn. Nov. 1878” on fly. Light toning at edges throughout with minor instances of foxing. Free of known marginalia. Binding tight and intact. All edges red. Please see photos. 

Incredibly scarce work of sanitary engineering by George E. Waring Jr. (1833-1898). Waring was a city reformer and sanitation engineer. He was an early American designer and advocate of sewer systems that keep domestic sewage away from storm runoff. Waring is most famous for clearing New York City of horse manure, urine and carcasses that was “shin deep”. He established a Street Cleaning Department.. a parade was held for the sanitation works in 1896. President William McKinley appointed Waring to make a study of the sanitary situation in Cuba, where he unfortunately contracted yellow fever. His body was cremated and the ashes were placed in an urn; after they were unclaimed in a doctor’s office the ashes were dumped so that the urn could be used for a gin rickey (!). 

Provenance of Carlos French (1835-1903) a U.S. representative from Connecticut 1887-1889. He was employed as the president and treasurer of the Fowler Nail Company from 1869 until his death and also the vice president of the H.A. Matthews Manufacturing Company. He was also the director the Union Horse Shoe Nail Company of Chicago, Illinois and of the Second National Bank of New Haven, Connecticut. In addition, he was the director of the Colonial Trust Company of Waterbury and of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company.

COLN1877BFJD-723