Alaska Volume I and II by John Burroughs, John Muir, George Bird Grinnell - 1901: Harriman Expedition 1899

Alaska Volume I: Narrative Glaciers, Natives

Alaska Volume II: History, Geography, Resources

Volume I: John Burroughs, John Muir, George Bird Grinnell

Volume II: William H. Dall, Charles Keller, Henry Gannett, William H. Brewer, C. Hart Merriam, George Bird Grinnell, M. L. Washburn

Fantastic Two Volumes of the 1899 Harriman Expedition

First edition of this beautifully illustrated work chronicling the Harriman expedition investigating the Alaskan flora, fauna, geology, climate, Eskimos, geography, and more. Leaving Seattle on May 31, 1899 on the Elder, the 126 passengers visited Vancouver Island, Metlakatta, Skagway, Sitka, Popof and Shumagin Islands and Plover Bay Siberia before returning to Seattle on July 30,1899.

Edward Harriman was one of America's wealthiest railroad barons at the time, and decided to make an expedition to Alaska with his family, and some of the most famous scientists and experts he could assemble for the trek. They included John Muir, author & naturalist; Henry Gannett, cartographer; R. Swain Gifford, the landscape painter; William Dall, paleontologist & geographer; Edward Curtis, noted photographer; Louis Agassiz Fuertes, ornithology artist; Frederick Dellenbaugh; Grinnell, noted expert on Native Americans, and many others.

This expedition launched the career of Edward Curtis who contributed 45 photographs for these volumes, and connected him with Grinnell which would later launch his massive work on photographing the Native American tribes. The photogravures and color plates of this edition were never duplicated with this and detail in the later printings and reprints.

New York, Doubleday, Page & Co., 1901, First Edition. Two volumes Volume 1: 183 pages, Volume 2: 185-383 pages. Very nice color frontispiece in both volumes. Heavily illustrated with 37 color plates (some chromolithographs), 85 photogravure plates, 1 large folding color map, numerous text illustrations and maps. Ultra clean publisher's green ribbed cloth, bright gilt illustration of seal on front cover with gilt ruling, top edge gilt. Books are near FINE.

$1,800