first-english-edition-of-i-bartram-s-travels-i
Lot 5054
First English Edition of Bartram's Travels
Lot Details & Additional Photographs
William Bartram. TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, EAST AND WEST FLORIDA, THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY, THE EXTENSIVE TERRITORIES OF THE MUSCOGULGES OR CREEK CONFEDERACY, AND THE COUNTRY OF THE CHACTAWS...TOGETHER WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE MANNERS OF THE INDIANS. Philadelphia: Printed by James and Johnson, 1791; London: Reprinted for J. Johnson, 1792. Modern leather boards, with gilt fillet and gilt-titled red morocco label on spine, fresh endpapers. 8vo; [i-iii], iv-xxiv, [1]-520, [12]pp. Complete with portrait frontispiece, map of the East Florida coast, and (7) plates (one folding). With final index and directions to the binder. Sabin 3870; Howes B223; ESTC T88527.

8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.

William Bartram (Pennsylvania, 1739-1823) was a natural historian and ornithologist who traveled through the Southeast in the 1770s. He finished writing Travels in the late 1780s and it was first published in Philadelphia in 1791. Howes describes Bartram's account as "Extensive travels, in the early years of the Republic, through the southern frontiers and among the Creeks and Cherokees. A work of high character well meriting its high esteem" (p. 46).

A very good copy of this important book on the Southeast; boards very lightly scuffed; red stamp on title page verso and first Contents page; pages generally lightly toned with light to moderate foxing that is typically heavier on plates and surrounding leaves, with expected offsetting, and occasional small stain or area of grime, frayed edge, and chipped corner or edge; a few leaves with spotting, Y3-Y5 with stain at outer margin; map with several repairs and tiny tear at a vertical fold, one repair to rear endpaper; plate 4 mis-numbered plate 5 and p. 257 mis-numbered 255.