Northern Pacific Railroad Company. Report Of Edwin F. Johnson, Engineer-In-Chief, To The Board Of Directors, November, 1867

EDWIN F. JOHNSON

Publication: Case, Lockwood and Company, Printers, 1867, Hartford

First edition. 8vo. Bound in a quarter cloth and marbled paper over boards binder, 56 pp., 16 pp., plus a large 23 1/4" x 44 3/4" folding, colored map, and a single page colored map. This is the rare privately printed first edition of Edwin Johnson's report on the Northern Pacific Railroad, with supporting communications from military figures including Montgomery Meigs and Ulysses S. Grant. Johnson's report alone, with the same folding map (but without the single-page map), was also printed by itself as a government document in 1867, and is much more common than this Hartford edition. Since the early 1850s Johnson, described by Wheat as a "visionary" engineer, had been associated with the plan to build a railroad across the northern part of the United States, from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Coast. In 1867 he was named chief engineer of the Northern Pacific, and this memorial is a work of major importance for the history of the railroad. It includes Johnson's topographical survey of the route to the Pacific, a discussion of potential problems that may be encountered, and a detailed economic and military survey of the area in justification of construction. Also in this Hartford printing of Johnson's report is a sixteen-page collection of documents from military figures on the importance of a northern transcontinental railroad. This copy is without an eleven-page memorial from the Northern Pacific RR Board of Directors, which is sometimes found included. The exceptional large folding "Map of the Country from Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean from the Latest Explorations and Surveys" was produced by the Colton firm in New York. It measures 23 1/4 x 44 3/4 inches, and is one of the finest maps of the region to date. It shows the area from Detroit to the Pacific, well into Canada and south to about the 39th parallel, including Minnesota, Dakota Territory, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Johnson has drawn the route of the Northern Pacific from Lake Superior to Washington Territory, where the line splits, with one branch heading toward Fort Vancouver and the other to Puget Sound. Among the details shown on the map are the Pony Express route, wagon routes and overland mail routes, exploration routes and other proposed railroad routes, the locations of Indian tribes, mineral deposits, and military forts, and much more. Wheat gives a long description of the map, and remarks that "the detail of such a map defies cataloging." Construction on the Northern Pacific Railroad began in 1870 and was completed in 1883. Edwin Johnson did not see its completion, dying in 1872. This privately-printed edition of Johnson's REPORT is rare in the trade, and I know of only two copies appearing at auction in the past forty years. Rare Book Hub does not record any copies in the trade since Cedric Robinson and Peter Decker offered copies in the 1950's. Rare and highly significant. Title page expertly backed by tissue, repairing some chips and tears around the edges, else very good. Large folding color map with minor separations at a few cross-folds, but in beautiful condition overall. A choice item.

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