New Tracks In North America

A Journal of Travel and Adventure Engraved in the Survey for a Southern Railroad to the Pacific Ocean During 1867 - 1868. Two volume set. Numerous plates. Map present
Author: William A. Bell
Illustrations Numerous Lithographs
Dated: 1869
Publisher: Chapman and Hall
Edition: 1st
Size: 8vo
Binding Hardcover
Type: Western Americana
Subject: Railroads trans american Rails
Provenance: Countess Maud Coster Salm
Notes & Literature Bell, a British physician, traveled to St. Louis in 1867 to study the principles of homeopathy. There he joined Palmer's Kansas Pacific Railway expedition (1868-69) in the informal capacity of both physician and photographer. The expedition sought the best route to extend the Railway across Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California to the Pacific coast. Bell's description of his experiences is credited for its scholarship and readability. Part II includes a lengthy section on "The Native Races of New Mexico," in which Bell "traces the migration northward of the Aztec race, driven by Spanish cruelty, with much ingenuity, by the ruins of their popular architecture" (Field 109). The folding map shows all of the West beyond the 100th meridian and south of the 42nd parallel as well as Mexico north of the 26th parallel. Wheat comments that it "has a distinctly modern aspect, since it applies different colors to varying elevations of the land." After the expedition, Bell and Palmer became business partners, together founding the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad as well as the city of Colorado Springs and many smaller enterprises in central Colorado.
Streeter 181; Howes B-330; Graff 246; Farqhuar 25.

Condition Report Vol. 1 hinge starting. Some plates detached but present. Good plus. Rare