Lot 273: PIERCY, FREDERICK. 1830-1891. Route from Liverpool, to Great Salt Lake Valley Illustrated. Liverpool & London: Franklin D. Richards & Latter-Day Saints' Book Depot, 1855.

Route from Liverpool, to Great Salt Lake Valley Illustrated. Liverpool & London: Franklin D. Richards & Latter-Day Saints' Book Depot, 1855. Edited by James Linsforth. viii, 120 pp. Folding map with some hand-coloring in outline, 30 engraved plates and 9 wood engravings after the sketches of Frederick Piercy. 4to (307 x 226 mm). Early calf over marbled boards, black gilt-lettered spine label. Small repair to fore-edge margin of title-page, brief ownership inscription to top margin of title, a few plates with repaired tears, some light stains and faint spotting to text, boards with corners rubbed.

FIRST EDITION, NOTED FOR ITS ATTRACTIVE VIEWS. This work combines Piercy's 1853 travel narrative, a history of Mormon migration, an overview of Salt Lake City, and much background and current information on the emigration of English Mormons to America with practical advice for those travellers. Piercy entered the United States at New Orleans, traveled north up the Mississippi to St. Louis, stopped in Nauvoo to view the ruins, and then followed the Mormon trail across Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming, and over the South Pass into Great Salt Lake valley. Wheat considers the present work's map "one of the most illuminating maps of the West to appear during 1855" and includes a folding reproduction of it in his own work. Howes points out that a large portion of the edition was water-damaged while en route to New York. Flake 6381; Graff 2501; Howes L359; Sabin 41325; Wagner-Camp 259; Wheat Transmississippi West 858 & pp 40-41.
Acquisition: purchased from William Reese Company, 2001, $24,000.