"The Old Santa Fe Trail: The Story Of A Highway", by Colonel Henry Inman, Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army, with A Preface by 'Buffalo Bill' Cody, illustrated by Frederic Remington, initials and tail pieces by Thomson Willing, published by Macmillan, New York, 1897. First Edition, First Printing with '1897' imprinted on bottom of the title page and copyright. Remington's pictures are genuine heliographs and the titles of the pictures are imprinted on the tissue guards.

[Howes I-57. Rittenhouse 323: "The first book devoted entirely to the SFT. One of the most popular works on the history of the Santa Fe trail, including the personal recollections of the author, description of unusual characters, stirring events, and adventures."

Hard boards, original green cloth, decorated front board and spine, gold lettering [some cloth wear: see photos]; stamp of 'Kingston Club' dated 12/4/97 inside front cover; 6" x 9"; endpapers are creased at the hinges; frontispiece portrait of Colonel Henry Inman with a tissue guard, xvi + 2 + 493 pages including Index, page top is gilt; 3 pages of publisher's advertising. Complete all 9 listed plates by Frederic Remington with tissue guards, and the fold-out map are present, a little aging, very good condition.

The plates by Frederic Remington are printed by heliotype process with printer’s ink on matte heavy stick paper. It means they have a quality of genuine photographs. The printer's ink warrants that the pictures do not fade like the old photographs often do. There are no dots nor circles of photomechanical printing-- even under magnifying glass, the pictures are exact reproductions of Remington's monochrome ink wash drawings. All these 9 drawings by Remington are listed in his catalog raisonne and dated 1897:

Coronado's March Date: ca. 1897 Catalog Number: 02163
A Pack Train to Santa Fe, 1820 Date: ca. 1897 Catalog Number: 02224
Troops Going to Mexico, 1847 Date: ca. 1897 Catalog Number: 02226
A Buffalo with the Pack Date: 1897 Catalog Number: 02221
Hunting a Beaver Stream—1840 Date: ca. 1897 Catalog Number: 02181
Government Scouts—Moonlight Date: ca. 1897 Catalog Number: 02173
A Citadel of the Plains Date: ca. 1897 Medium: oil Catalog Number: 02161
A Trapper and His Pony Date: ca. 1897 Catalog Number: 02225

Henry Inman (1837-1899) was an American soldier, frontiersman, and author. He served the military during the Indian campaigns and the American Civil War, having earned distinction for gallantry on the battlefield. He was commissioned lieutenant general during the Indian wars. He settled in Kansas and worked as a journalist and author of short stories and books of the plains and western frontier. He was a friend and associate of Buffalo Bill and served under General Custer.

As a young man, Inman traveled west and met Buffalo Bill Cody. He scouted with Cody, fought with him on the frontier, and often rode with him during the parades of Cody's Wild West shows. He also knew many Native American chiefs.

At 19, Frederic Remington made his first trip west, going to Montana. In the American West of 1881, he saw the vast prairies, the quickly shrinking bison herds, the still unfenced cattle, and the last major confrontations of US Cavalry and Native American tribes, scenes he had imagined since his childhood. He also hunted grizzly bears with Montague Stevens in New Mexico in 1895. Though the trip was undertaken as a lark, it gave Remington a more authentic view of the West than some of the later artists and writers who followed in his footsteps. From that first trip, Harper's Weekly printed Remington's first published commercial effort, a re-drawing of a quick sketch on wrapping paper that he had mailed back east.

Remington's first full-page cover under his own name appeared in Harper's Weekly on January 9, 1886, when he was twenty-five. In 1886, he was commissioned by 'Harper's Weekly' as an artist-correspondent to cover the U.S. Government's campaign against Geronimo. He never was able to catch up with Geronimo himself, so Remington focused more on "Soldiering in the Southwest," taking many photographs and making sketches, which upon his return east he turned into illustrations for Harper’s and the magazine Outing. This was the beginning of a very successful career as an illustrator, with Remington providing artwork for these and other publications, as well as providing images for books and art portfolios.

John Thomson Willing (1860-1934) was active/ lived in Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario. Born in Toronto, Canada, he studied at the Ontario School of Art. He was a member of the Salmagundi Club from 1897, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and the Royal Canadian Academy. His specialty was bookplate designs. As illustrator, he is best known for illustrations to "The Santa Fe Trail."

US: Priority (c.2-4 days) ---------- $24.50
Canada: Express (c.5-7 days) ------ $59.50
World: Express (c.5-10 days) ------ $87.50