Picturesque America; or, The Land We Live In. A Delineation by Pen and Pencil of the Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, Forests, Water-Falls, Shores, Cañons, Valleys, Cities, and Other Picturesque Features of Our Country

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1872. Hardcover. Complete 2-volume set. Folio. Full brown calf with raised bands and ornate gilt lettering and decoration and inner dentelles, with dark brown embossed ornate rules and borders. viii, 568pp; vi, 576pp. All edges gilt. Tissue-guarded frontispieces, engraved title pages, extensive full- and partial-page engravings, heavy stock tissue-guarded plates, marbled endpapers. Overall very good. Minor edge rubbing and scuffing to bindings; quite tight internally, with text blocks lightly age toned as usual with occasional small foxing; ex-library, the only markings being barely-visible mark near foot of each spine (truncated) and circular-blind-embossed institutional imprint on several pages of each volume; small scuff on each front pastedown. Early edition of this hefty pair compiled by veteran poet and "New York Evening Post" editor Bryant and a groundbreaking work that pioneered national coast-to-coast travelogues, with region-by-region essays by a slew of once-noted writers and (to cite title page) "With Illustrations on Steel and Wood, by Eminent American Artists." The text illustrations are abundant and dramatic, while the dozens of heavy stock, tissue-guarded plates are superb. Nature sites and natural beauty are emphasized throughout -- note that "Cities" appears last in the list of features in the subtitle. A quite nice set of this milestone in American pictorial travelogues. BAL 1732.SABIN 62692. (Inventory #: 50531)