PALMER, Joel (1810-1881). Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains, to the Mouth of the Columbia River; Made during the Years 1845 and 1846: Containing minute descriptions of the Valleys of the Willamette, Umpqua, and Clamet; A General Description of Oregon Territory...A List of Necessary Outfits for Emigrants; and a Table of Distances from Camp
to Camp on the Route. Cincinnati: J.A. & U.P. James, 1847.
8vo (197 x 114 mm). (Light spotting.) Contemporary sheep (rebacked to style). Provenance: contemporary pencil gift inscription on front blank.
FIRST EDITION, second issue, with corrections made on pages 31 and 121 and without the errata slip tipped in at page 189. This copy with the title-page date altered by hand. "This alteration of the final numeral was done by Palmer himself to make his unsold copies sell better in 1848" (Howes).
ONE OF THE MOST COMPLETE ACCOUNTS OF LIFE ON THE OREGON TRAIL. The tide of overland immigration that swept into Oregon in 1843 was followed by even larger waves in the years that followed. The migration of 1845 was among the largest, producing one of the most complete accounts of wagon-train life in this work by Joel Palmer. His journal is the only contemporary record by a participant in the 1845 migration, which numbered some 3,000 people. "Most reliable of the early guides to Oregon; in addition, the best narrative by a participant in the overland migration of 1845, which more than doubled the population of Oregon" (Ibid).
Also included in the work is a letter from Rev. Spalding describing his missionary work among the Nez Perce, a vocabulary of the Chinook Jargon and the Nez Perce language, a description of Mount Hood, and what Streeter identifies as one of the earliest printings of the Organic Laws of Oregon Territory. Ayer (Chinook) 48; Field 1165; Graff 3172; Hill 1287; Howes P-47; Pilling, Chinookan p.57; Pilling, Proof-sheets 2286; Reese, Best of the West, 98; Smith 7886; cf. Streeter sale 3146 (1st issue); Wagner-Camp 136:2.
This lot is located in Chicago.
