Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Muir, John, 1838-1914.
- Abstract:
- This collection consists of an extra-illustrated set of the The Writings of John Muir : Manuscript Edition (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916-1924), which includes 260 platinum prints chiefly by photographer Herbert W. Gleason (1855-1937) and ten manuscript fragments in John Muir's hand from a draft of his work, The Mountains of California.
- Extent:
- 10 volumes
- Language:
- English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection consists of an extra-illustrated set of the 10-volume The Writings of John Muir : Manuscript Edition (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916-1924), identified as set number 126 of 750 (of the standard edition).
Tipped into each volume is:
- A manuscript fragment from a draft of "The Glacier Meadow," chapter 7 in The Mountains of California in John Muir's hand.
- A hand-colored photogravure frontispiece of one of the illustrations within the volume.
- 26 to 27 additional platinum prints, each preceded by a page containing a typescript title and corresponding quotation from the text.
The added images (in addition to the 114 photogravure plates originally included with the set) include 260 platinum photographic prints chiefly by photographer Herbert W. Gleason (1855-1937), which correspond to the text. Images chiefly consist of landscapes related to Muir's travels and writings about the American West, including Alaska, California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington; as well as close-up photographs of animals and plants. While most of the images depict natural scenery, there are a few photographs of Muir or specific buildings or individuals related to his life, as well as two photographs each depicting an unidentified man and woman: "Agate Stumps in Yellowstone Park" (Volume 6, facing page 68) and "An Artesian Well. [Part of the water supply of the city of Ogden, Utah]" (volume 8, facing page 162).
The compiler of this extra-illustrated set is unidentified but may have been Gleason. There are similarities between some of the typescript titles and the original envelope titles created by Gleason for his negatives in the Robbins-Mills Collection of Herbert Wendell Gleason Photographic Negatives at the Concord Free Public Library.
Each copyright page has the printed text "Edition Limited to Seven Hundred and Fifty Copies This is Number 126." All of the volumes are stamped on the verso of flyleaf, "Bound at the Riverside Press."
- Biographical / historical:
-
John Muir (1838-1914) was a naturalist, conservationist, and author. His published works include: The Mountains of California,Our National Parks,The Yosemite, and My First Summer in the Sierra.
Herbert Wendell Gleason (1855-1937) was a photographer, naturalist, and lecturer. Gleason was born in Malden, Massachusetts, and, between 1883 and 1899, spent sixteen years in Minnesota as a Congregational minister and editor of the Northwest Congregationalist (retitled The Kingdom in 1894) before returning to Massachusetts, where he began photographing sites related to the naturalist writer Henry David Thoreau. In 1903, the Houghton Mifflin Company approached Gleason to illustrate a forthcoming edition of Thoreau's collected works using Gleason's photographs as photogravures. In subsequent years, Gleason's photographs would later be used to illustrate deluxe editions of the collected writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, and others. Gleason spent many summers photographing the mountain regions and national parks of the American West and had a friendship with Muir.
- Acquisition information:
- Purchased by the Library Collectors' Council from Jeff Weber Rare Books, January 14, 2017.
- Arrangement:
-
The volumes are arranged by volume number.
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
- Location of this collection:
-
1151 Oxford RoadSan Marino, CA 91108, US
- Contact:
- (626) 405-2191