[AMERICANA]. IVES, Joseph Christmas, Lieut. (1829-1868). Report Upon the Colorado River of the West. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1861.

4to. Frontispiece, 2 large folding maps, 1 engraved profile, 16 engraved views, 8 hand-colored illustrations of Native Americans, 9 folding panoramic views (offsetting, very light spotting). Modern quarter morocco. Provenance: The Field Museum (stamps on title-page).

FIRST EDITION of the House issue comprising Ives's first complete report of his 1857-1858 expedition to explore and test the navigability of the Colorado River. Accompanying Ives was artist Heinrich Balduin Möllhausen, whose drawings were among the first to depict the Grand Canyon. According to William Goetzmann, Ives's report is "the best by far of these individual reports...It is a long, carefully written journal, consciously literary but with a maximum amount of attention to scientific observation." Howes I-92; Sabin 35308; Wagner-Camp 375; Wheat, Transmississippi IV:98-101.

Property from the Estate of Peter Fortsas