Description

RARE INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION OF NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA, 1869, INSCRIBED BY PIONEER WILLIAM BELL, A COUSIN OF SHACKLETON AND CO-FUNDER OF SCOTT’S DISCOVERY EXPEDITION, WITH LAID-IN BOOKLET AND INSCRIBED VINTAGE ALBUMEN PORTRAIT OF DR. BELL

BELL, William. New Tracks in North America. A Journal of Travel and Adventure. London: Chapman and Hall, 1869. Two volumes. Octavo, original gilt-lettered russet cloth. Laid-in 16-page Address (Colorado, 1820), octavo, staple-bound as issued; laid-in vintage albumen print, circa 1867 (measures 2 by 3-1/2 inches), inked manuscript hand on the verso, within small ivory envelope (measures 4 by 5 inches), penciled manuscript hand on the recto.

First edition of this account of the 1867 Kansas Pacific expedition, authored by pioneer Dr. William Bell, cousin of polar explorer Shackleton and co-funder of Scott’s Discovery Expedition, inscribed in Volume II by Bell, “For Nora from W.A.B. 1870,” with numerous lithographs, woodcuts and two maps (one folding), this copy also featuring a laid-in booklet with a 1920 Address given by Bell in Colorado, and an inscribed vintage albumen print of Bell from the 1867 expedition.

Bell was a prominent member of General Palmer’s 1867 geographical survey across the West for the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The Irish-born Bell was visiting St. Louis, Missouri when he sought to join the expedition. Given that a doctor had already been hired but a photographer was needed, Bell accepted the challenge and quickly trained himself in the art. Once underway the original physician left and Bell immediately filled that post as well. Bell and Palmer soon became business partners in ventures that included the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, whose “Royal Gorge route through the canyon of the Arkansas River [would] become one of the most popular with western tourists” (Lamar, 841). On his return to England, Bell was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and joined with Sir Clements Markham, Llewellyn Longstaff and others in funding Robert Scott’s first expedition, the Discovery Expedition to Antarctica—“one of the most important endeavors of the Heroic Age…. The scientific results mark it as one of the most productive of the early-20th-century expeditions” (Riffenburgh, Encyclopedia of the Antarctic, 198). Bell was further attached to the Discovery as the cousin of Ernest Shackleton who, at age 25, joined Scott’s expedition and kept spirits high as editor of the company newspaper, the South Polar Times. After the Discovery, Shackleton played a “vital part in the quest for the South Pole” by leading his own historic expeditions, including the Nimrod Expedition that also had the support of Dr. Bell (Preston, 33). With tinted frontispiece plates and title page woodcut vignettes, along with 18 tinted lithograph plates (many after photographs by Bell), three botanical plates, 20 woodcut illustrations, a folding map of the southwestern United States with Bell’s route outline in red (Vol. I), and a full-page map colored in green showing the San Francisco Bay, San Diego and Guaymas (Vol. II). With 20-page illustrated publisher’s advertisements at rear (Vol. II). Howes B330. Graff 246. Rader 330. Bell’s inscription in Volume II. Laid-in booklet of his 1820 Address at a Colorado dinner for “Employees of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad,” with owner inscription above title page. Laid-in envelope with notation of “Old Photo of Father sent by E.N.B,” containing a vintage albumen print displaying a full-length portrait of Dr. Bell, inscribed by him on the verso, “As I cross the plains. Yours truly, W.A. Bell.” Bookseller tickets.