Beyond the Mississippi: From the Great River to the Great Ocean by Albert D. Richardson, New Edition, 1869

Richardson, Albert D. Beyond the Mississippi: From the Great River to the Great Ocean. Life and Adventure on the Prairies, Mountains, and Pacific Coast. With More than Two Hundred Illustrations, From Photographs and Original Sketches, of the Prairies, Deserts, Mountains, Rivers, Mines, Cities, Indians, Trappers, Pioneers, and Great Natural Curiosities of the New States and Territories. Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1869. New Edition. Octavo. In brown cloth boards, blind embossed on front and back boards, titled in gilt on front board and spine. Rebacked, saving original cloth. Profusely illustrated, with full-page and in-text engravings and a map. With a new archival slipcase. 

Presented is Albert D. Richardson’s Beyond the Mississippi: From the Great River to the Great Ocean. This printing, a revised “New Edition,” was published by the American Publishing Company in 1869. It is in the brown cloth boards, with blind embossed borders on the front and back boards, titled in gilt on front board and spine. It has been rebacked, saving the original cloth. The edition is profusely illustrated, with more than 200 engravings and a two-page map, “Map of the Region Between the Mississippi and the Pacific, to Accompany Richardson’s 'Beyond the Mississippi. ’” 

First published in 1867, Richardson’s Beyond the Mississippi offers a contemporary account of the American West during a period of significant territorial and population expansion, exploration, and technological transformation, post-Civil War. In the spring of 1865, Richardson crossed the continent with Schuyler Colfax, Governor William Bross of Illinois, and Samuel Bowles of the Springfield Republican, recording the landscapes, communities, industries, and political circumstances encountered along the journey. His stated aim was to preserve a faithful picture of a “fleeting phase of our national life,” documenting a rapidly changing region at the close of the Civil War. Richardson also recounts his experiences as an antislavery activist in Kansas, providing insight into the political conflict that shaped the settlement of the state.

Another significant episode in the narrative is Richardson’s journey from Sacramento to Salt Lake City in 1865, undertaken at the invitation of Leland Stanford, then-president of the Central Pacific Railroad. The trip allowed Richardson to observe the construction of the transcontinental railroad firsthand.

 In this 1869 revised edition, published shortly after the railroad’s completion, Richardson expands upon the original work with several new chapters addressing the planning, construction, and national significance of the Pacific Railroad. Richardson had recently traveled over the completed line, making his account a particularly timely record of this landmark achievement. Like the first edition, this revised edition was issued by subscription only.

Albert D. Richardson (1833–1869) was a prominent journalist, author, and Union intelligence operative. He began his newspaper career with Pittsburgh’s Commercial Journal in 1851 and subsequently worked as a correspondent for the Boston Journal and as editor of the Western Mountaineer in Golden City, Colorado. During the Civil War, he reported for the New York Tribune, traveling to battlefields alongside fellow correspondent Junius Henri Browne. Their wartime reporting led to their capture and imprisonment for approximately twenty months in a succession of Confederate prisons, including facilities at Vicksburg, Jackson, Atlanta, Richmond, and Salisbury, North Carolina. On December 18, 1864, Richardson and Browne escaped from Salisbury and traveled more than 400 miles through hostile territory before reaching Union lines on January 14, 1865. Richardson later chronicled his Civil War experiences in The Secret Service, the Field, the Dungeon, and the Escape and published A Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant. From May-June of 1869, he wrote a series of articles entitled “Through to the Pacific” for the New York Tribune, further documenting the newly completed transcontinental railroad. He died in December of that year, shortly after the publication of this revised edition of Beyond the Mississippi. His second wife published a collection of his writings in the posthumous volume Garnered Sheaves (1871). 

CONDITION:

Very good+ condition. New Edition. Octavo. In brown cloth boards, blind embossed on front and back boards, titled in gilt on front board and spine. Scratches and wear to boards, the gilt on the spine is worn in some areas. Bumping to corners. Rebacked, saving original cloth and brown endpapers. Past owner’s inscription on front free endpaper, “Charles N. Davidson.” On front flyleaf, past ownership of “Harry Davidson” inscribed in pencil and stamped in ink. A longer gifted inscription in blue ink follows on the same page. Else, very clean with only faint scattered foxing marks, light toning to paper. Profusely illustrated, with full-page and in-text engravings and a two-page map. With a new archival slipcase. 

Accompanied by our company's letter of authenticity.