PBA Galleries

7 volumes in 8. Comprises: Volume I--Geographical Report. Illustrated with dozens of lithographed plates and maps, most duotone but including some chromolithographs, some double-page; plus 3 large folding maps. Errata slip tipped in. [1889] * Volume II--Astronomy and Barometric Hypsometry. Illustrated with lithographed maps on folding plates and folding charts. Errata slip tipped in. [1877] * Volume III—Geology. 2 volumes including supplement. Illustrated with 18 plates, including maps, heliotypes, and duotone lithographed views plus three folding maps in pocket at rear of supplement. Errata slip tipped in. [1875 & 1889] * Volume IV -- Paleontology. Illustrated with 83 lithograph plates of fossils. Errata slip tipped in. [1877] * Volume V—Zoology. Illustrated with 15 chromolithographs of birds; 10 lithograph plates of reptiles (a few color); 8 lithograph plates of fish; 7 of lithograph plates of insects; 6 chromolithograph plates of butterflies. Errata page bound in. [1875] * Volume VI—Botany. Illustrated with chromolithograph frontispiece of cactus; and 30 lithograph botanical plates. Errata and addenda slip tipped in. [1878] * Volume VII—Archeology. Illustrated with 16 heliotype plates (mostly of artifacts) plus 5 chromolithographed plates, including the frontispiece of the Zuni Cachina dance. [1879]. (4to) 11½x9, original brown cloth. Together 7 volumes in 8.

The complete text volumes of Wheeler's ambitious survey, atlas volume not present. "Representing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wheeler surveyed some 361,000 square miles of the southwest between 1869 and 1979...Wheeler's primary objective was to prepare a detailed topographic map of the West. In pursuit of this goal he divided the area of the West into ninety-five 'principal' rectangles, each rectangle comprising 2 degrees 45' minutes of longitude and 1 degree 40' minutes of latitude, to be covered in four atlas sheets." (Schwartz & Ehrenberg, pp. 304-306). Wheeler's survey was the most ambitious of the great post-Civil War surveys of the West, in the area covered and in the breadth of attention paid to the natural sciences.