Lot 178: SCHOOLCRAFT, HENRY R. 1793-1864. A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri; including some Observations ... of Missouri and Arkansaw, and other sections of the Western Country. New York: Charles Wiley, 1819.

A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri; including some Observations ... of Missouri and Arkansaw, and other sections of the Western Country. New York: Charles Wiley, 1819.
299 pp. Engraved frontispiece and 2 plates. 8vo (234 x 144 mm). Untrimmed in original boards, remnants of printed paper spine label. Custom clamshell box. Some foxing, heavier at ends, small hole to title-page (partially removing shelf mark on verso), boards worn with spine nearly perished and upper cover detached.

FIRST EDITION. Schoolcraft, who later wrote authoritative works on American Indians, was trained as a geologist. The record of his 1816-1817 expedition to southern Missouri and northern Arkansas includes the first detailed description by a trained scientist of the Ozark uplands. Two of the plates depict smelting furnaces and the frontispiece shows the mining town of Potosi. Clark II:66; Graff 3702; Howes S194; Sabin 77881; Wagner-Camp 15d:1.
Acquisition: purchased from William Reese Company, 2001, $1,200.