PBA Galleries

2 volumes. [2], xxii, 506 + [6] ad; [2], xvii, [1], 624 pp. Illustrated with 16 lithographed plates after Bartlett including folding frontispieces, with tissue guards; numerous wood engravings; large folding map in Vol. I. (8vo), original green cloth, spines gilt lettered and decorated. First Edition

This set was the personal copy of Caleb Burwell Rowan Kennerly, and signed by him at the front of both volumes. Dr. Kennerly's work as surgeon and naturalist on several government-sponsored expeditions was very significant. He participated in the Pacific Railroad Survey along the 35th parallel (1853-1854), the United States Mexican Boundary Survey (1854-1855), and the Northwest Boundary Survey (1857-1861). All these surveys produced rich natural history specimens that were deposited at the Smithsonian. These two volumes provide an important first-hand account of the survey which laid down the southwestern border between the United States and Mexico following the conclusion of hostilities. Jenkins calls this work "the most scholarly and scientific description of southwest Texas of its era," although Graff points out that "a number of incidents described by Bartlett have been differently interpreted by his associates." This copy with only one of the geyser plates listed and with the additional unlisted view of Tucson, as often. Cowan p.36; Graff 198; Howes B201; Jenkins 12; Rader 287; Sabin 3746; Wagner-Camp 234:1; Wheat Transmississippi 798.