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Bound volume of 12 original issues, each 4 pp. With engraved pictorial headpiece for each issue, a few engraved illustrations.25x18 cm. (10x7¼"), original cloth with gilt cover lettering & vignette.

The Trans-Continental was a newspaper published by the Boston Board of Trade aboard the train that carried members of the board and their families on the Boston Board of Trade Trans-Continental Excursion from Boston to San Francisco in 1870. The Trans-Continental was the first newspaper published aboard a train in the United States. This is a complete run of the paper as bound for members of the Excursion Party, and as such rare. The Boston Excursion Party was the largest party to visit the Yosemite Valley up to that point in time. Given the limited number of Yosemite hotel accommodations at that early date, the Excursion Party actually had to divide itself in two, with half visiting Yosemite and the remainder touring San Francisco. The complete run of the newspaper contains a total of twelve issues with the first six covering the journey west and the last six covering the return journey east. While the Trans-Continental’s description of the Yosemite visit by the Boston party is very minor, what is of interest to Yosemite researchers and historians are the advertisements by the San Francisco photographic concern of Thos. Houseworth & Co. Both Houseworth and John Soule of Boston published similar views of the Boston Excursion Party in Yosemite. But John Soule never came to California, and it is very likely that he enlisted the aid of the Boston Board of Trade to make a deal for him to obtain negatives of California, of its cities, and of such scenic wonders as Yosemite. Soule subsequently published nearly two-hundred views of the Yosemite region and the Big Trees. It appears likely that Houseworth aided Soule in this matter, perhaps selling him negatives, or arranging for the sale of the negatives he required. The Houseworth advertisements in The Transcontinental might even have been a pot sweetener offered by the Boston Board of Trade. Provenance: Eldon Grupp.