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OLMSTEAD, Samuel R. (mid-19th Century). The Gold Mines of Kansas and Nebraska . New York, 1859.
OLMSTEAD, Samuel R. (mid-19th Century). The Gold Mines of Kansas and Nebraska . New York, 1859. The very rare first edition, with contemporary provenance : this is only the second copy to appear at auction since the Streeter sale in 1968. This guide, one of a handful not recorded by LeRoy Hafen in his Pike's Peak Guide Books , was apparently sponsored by the Toledo, Wabash and Great Western Railroad whose lines are described on pages 14-16 and which are depicted on the map. Olmstead was editor of the New York Sun and his introduction answers questions relating to the "new El Dorado just coming to notice on the borders of our Western civilization." He notes that the same spirit of enterprise which possessed Columbus, Sir Walter Raleigh and De Soto is now inherited by the "sons of New England" who "are willing to take upon themselves the struggles and difficulties that ever attend upon the track of the pioneer." The last copy of this ephemeral pamphlet to appear at auction according to online databases was the Jay T. Snider copy, sold Christie’s New York, 21 June 2005, lot 291 (that copy previously sold Sotheby’s New York, 18 June 2002, lot 258). Streeter 2126; Wagner-Camp-Becker 337a; Wheat Mapping the Transmississippi West 989. 16mo (127 x 74 mm). Folding lithographed map of the Toledo, Wabash and Great Western Rail Road Line and its connections (126 x 277 mm). Sewn as issued in original tan printed wrappers (some spotting); preserved in a contemporary leather wallet, contemporary docketing by Andrew J. Crane in manuscript on the inner folding flaps. Provenance : Andrew J. Crane, of Waterbury Vermont, member of the Vermont Volunteer in the 10th Regiment, Company C, and inventor in 1873 of a meat crusher [see patent 135,781, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office ] (ink inscription on flaps: “A. J. Crane Waterbury / Washington County Vermont / Andrew J. Crane”).