The United States With An Excursion Into Mexico. Handbook For Travelers

BAEDEKER, KARL [EDITED BY]

Publication: Karl Baedeker, Publisher, 1893, Leipsic

First Edition. 6 1/4" x 4 1/4" original red cloth, titles stamped in gold gilt on the front cover and spine, all edges marbled, c, 516 pp., complete with 17 maps in color (some folded) and 22 plans (some folded). Tipped to the front free-endpaper is a sheet from a physician's prescription pad on which he has written from Arlington's Hotel Washington to the Homestead Hotel in Hot Springs, Virginia. The first Baedeker guide to the United States, and the first to be written in English. An extensive guide-book with maps and plans of all major cities, and tourist destinations such as Yellowstone National Park, the Battlefield of Gettysburg, the Grand Canyon, the Yosemite, and including Mexico. Including a brief history of the U.S. and since the country is so large a range of suggested tours: "The plan of tour must depend entirely on the traveller's taste and the time he has at his disposal. It is manifestly impossible to cover more than a limited section of so vast a territory in an ordinary travelling season; but the enormous distances are practically much diminished by the comfortable arrangements for travelling at night. Among the grandest natural features of the country, one or other of which should certainly be visited if in any wise practicable, are Niagara Falls, the Yellowstone Park, the Yosemite Valley, Alaska, and the Grand Canon of the Colorado. Along with these may be mentioned the canons, mountains, and fantastic rocks of Colorado, the grand isolated snow-covered volcanic cones of the Pacific coast, the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, the Cavern of Luray, the Natural Bridge of Virginia, and the Shoshone Falls...." (page xxiii) Using his own travel experiences, Karl Baedeker guided the tourist to the main attractions at each location, saving travelers the expense of both time and of hiring their own guide. The reliability of the information was ensured by annual journeys by Baedeker himself and by reference to respected published sources and expert scholars. For the serious tourist a Baedeker guide was indispensable. The front and rear free-endpapers are detached and present. Otherwise, this is a clean, tight example of the guidebook. Very good.

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