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7 volumes in 8. Profusely illustrated with plates and maps throughout. (4to) 29x22 cm (11½x9"), original brown cloth, gilt spines.

Scarce series of Wheeler’s reports with the diverse plates in chromolithography, in heliotype, etc. 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. Includes:

• 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. Boards detached, spine strip nearly so; interior disbound and in numerous pieces, one map with portion detached but laid in. 1889.
•  Volume II: Astronomy and Barometric Hypsometry. Illustrated with lithographed maps on folding plates and folding charts. 1877. 
• Volume III: Geology. Illustrated with 14 plates, including maps, heliotypes, and duotone lithographed views. Boards detached, spine strip lacking; interior split into 2 pieces, a few leaves detached and laid in. 1875.
• Volume III Supplement: With 4 plates, 3 folding color map sheets in rear pouch. Front board detached, rear nearly so. A few leaves and plates detached but laid in. 1881.
• Volume IV: Paleontology.  Illustrated with 83 lithograph plates of fossils. Errata slip tipped in. Boards detached, spine strip lacking, volume split into two halves, with some loose leaves.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. Rear board detached, front nearly so. 1875.
• Volume VI: Botany. Illustrated with chromolithograph frontispiece of cactus; and 30 lithograph botanical plates. Boards loose; some leaves detached and laid 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. Boards loose. 1879.

"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).