(Yosemite) — Joseph Le Conte | Glen Dawson's copy of this early, privately printed travel journal, illustrated with photographs

(Yosemite) — Joseph Le Conte

A Journal of Ramblings Through the High Sierras of California by the “University Excursion Party.” San Francisco: Francis & Valentine, 1875

8vo (213 x 132). 9 mounted albumen photographs with borders and captions printed in red; very light even toning, occasional pale staining mostly affecting pages 50 and 51, the expected rippling surrounding the mounted photographs. Publisher’s blue cloth, gilt title to upper board; spine toned, some rubbing and light wear, front board bowed, minor bubbling in the cloth at rear board.

First edition of this charming privately printed account of a camping trip in the High Sierras—one of the more scarce and desirable books on Yosemite.

A journal describing a monthlong trip in the summer of 1870 through Yosemite. The party consisted mostly of U.C. Berkeley students, accompanied by Professor Joseph Le Conte, a physician, geologist, conservationist, and the book’s author. Le Conte gives a lively and detailed account of the party’s adventures, and the sights that they saw. He also makes regular notes on the area’s geology. John Muir happened across the party and joined them for a nine-day stretch. Muir would remain close friends with Professor Le Conte. They would go on to help found the Sierra Club in 1892.

The nine photographs begin with a group portrait showing the members of the “University Excursion Party” posing in front of the Great Yosemite Fall, followed by a series of scenic views (The Grizzly Giant, The Gates of the Valley, Lake Tenaya, etc.). The final photograph is a pre-fire view of of Montgomery Street in San Francisco, with Bradley & Rulofson’s photographic studio visible in the background.

REFERENCES

Curry & Kruska 230; Farquhar 14a; Howes L175 (“only a few copies printed”)

PROVENANCE

Charles L. Camp (U.C. Berkeley paleontologist and zoologist; pencil signature on rear pastedown) — Irving W. Robbins Jr. (book collector and an honorary curator of rare books at Stanford University; laid in book label) — Glen Dawson (mountaineer, antiquarian bookseller, publisher, book collector, and Sierra club president; ex libris on front pastedown)