PBA Galleries

[4], xii, 13-496 pp. Illustrated with 28 "photo-typo" plates by Britton & Rey (including frontispiece "In the Heart of the Sierras"); numerous wood-engravings, including plates after photographs and paintings; plate of a snow plant printed in red; plus 2 maps (1 folding). 8½x5¾, original decorative olive green cloth, stamped and lettered in gilt, floral-patterned endpapers, all edges gilt.

Hutchings, a pioneer of the tourist industry in Yosemite and one of the first to visit there in winter, was Guardian to the Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove from 1880-1884. According to Farquhar, In the Heart of the Sierras was Hutchings' crowning publishing achievement and "...contains a great deal more... than an account of Hutchings' personal experiences; it covers more fully than any other work of its day every aspect of Yosemite Valley and the Big Trees that could be considered of general interest to visitors." Cowan p.299: Currey & Kruska 175; Farquhar 18d.