| Peter Kalm — Travels into North America; Containing its Natural History, and a Circumstantial Account of its Plantations and Agriculture in General, with the Civil Ecclesiastical and Commercial State of the Country, the Manners of the Inhabitants, and Several Curious |
 |
Travels into North America; Containing its Natural History, and a Circumstantial Account of its Plantations and Agriculture in General, with the Civil Ecclesiastical and Commercial State of the Country, the Manners of the Inhabitants, and Several Curious |
|
2 volumes. 8vo., (8 2/8 x 5 inches). Large engraved folding map and 6 plates (some minor offsetting, one or two pale marginal stains). Modern diced calf antique. Provenance: Bookplates of Ruthven Deane (1851-1934), "heart ornithologist" (Theodore Roosevelt), on each front paste-down and manuscript bibliographical notes tipped in before the first blank in volume one. "One of the most important and reliable eighteenth-century accounts of American natural history, social organization and political situation" (Streeter sale II, 823). Second English edition. First published in Sweden in three volumes in 1753, 1756, and 1761. Before journeying to North America Kalm had travelled extensively not only in Sweden, but also in Russia and the Ukraine. ".These volumes contain the most trustworthy description of Swedish settlements in.Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The voyage was undertaken at the instigation of Linnaeus, for the purpose of discovering whether any North American plants could be successfully introduced into Sweden" (Lande 482). "A work of high character, especially for its natural history, for which the author was immortalized by Linnaeus" (Sabin) who named the "Mountain-Laurel" Kalmia latifolia, the state flower of both Pennsylvania and Connecticut, for him. Sabin 36989. |
|
|
|
