explorer

Wonderland; or, Alaska and the Inland Passage

Published in 1886, Wonderland was a free guidebook promoting travel via the Northern Pacific Railroad to the minimally developed and gloriously natural northern territory of the United States between the Mississippi Valley and Alaska. Wonderland includes a reference to a previous journey through Alaska made by E. Ruhamah Scidmore, who published a travel guide titled Alaska, its Southern Coast and the Sitkan Archipelago in 1885.

The Marvellous Country

Samuel Woodworth Cozzens (1834-1878) was a lawyer, and for a time United States district judge of Arizona. His published works include The Marvellous Country (Boston, 1876), The Young Trail-Hunters series, and Nobody's Husband (1878).  He travelled in Arizona during a relatively calm period of Apache activity, though he writes about several bloody episodes in the book. He met various prominent Arizonans such as the Penningtons on their way to Southern Arizona. and the legendary chief of the Chokonens, Cochise.

Arizona Place Names

“For more than thirty years the author has been gathering information from old timers, Indians, Mexicans, cowboys, sheep-herders, historians, any and everybody who had a story to tell as to the origin and meaning of Arizona names” begins Will Croft Barnes' most well-known work, Arizona Place Names – the product of a lifetime of travel throughout Arizona as a result of his military, political, geographical, and ecological services to the U.S.

Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana

This book is of interest primarily for including the journal of Charles Le Raye, a fur trader who was purportedly captured by the Sioux on the upper Missouri River. It included descriptions of the Native American peoples whom he encountered and the animals of the region. The journal is actually a fabrication, drawn from contemporary accounts of the Lewis & Clark and the Pike expeditions, but it is the source for the first descriptions and scientific names of seven species of American mammals, including the mule deer.

A Treatise on Diamonds and Precious Stones

John Mawe (1766-1829) first set out on a career at sea, but after the merchant ship he was in foundered on a reef near Mozambique, he concluded that a sea-faring life was too hazardous and turned to selling the shells, minerals, and other natural-history specimens that he had begun collecting in his travels. He became one of the leading dealers in the booming trade of specimens for curiosity cabinets and scholarly collections throughout Europe.

Beretning om Corvetten Galathea's Reise Omkring Jorden 1845, 46 og 47

The Galathea expedition was Denmark's first circumnavigation, carrying naturalists and artists who collected plants, animals, and ethnographic artifacts along a route that included India, the Nicobar Islands, Java, China, Hawaii, and several parts of South America. This official account by the captain, Steen Bille (1797-1883), held by fewer than 10 libraries in the U.S., is of particular interest to curators who work on Hawaiian material in the National Museum of Natural History's departments of Botany, Vertebrate Zoology, and Anthropology.

Four Years in a Government Exploring Expedition

Naval officer George Colvocoresses took part in the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-42, and published this account of it based on a journal which he kept. The text covers the entire itinerary of the voyage, describing the lands and peoples visited and a variety of scientific matters; the 19 illustrations include botanical and zoological subjects and scenes of the west coast of North America. Of particular interest is Colvocoresses' participation in the overland leg of the expedition in the Pacific Northwest and California. The U.S.