Apr 15, 2021 - Sale 2564

Sale 2564 - Lot 317

Price Realized: $ 1,300
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(WEST.) Carl E. Schmidt. A Western Trip. 12 full-page color and 18 smaller black and white photographs mounted as issued. 91, [1] pages. 4to, original pictorial full calf gilt, moderate wear; rejointed, silk endpapers worn and laid down, light offsetting from photographs, light wrinkling to a few leaves; printed in green and brown, uncut; author's gift inscription on flyleaf, with his presentation letter laid in. [Detroit: Herold Press, 1904]

Additional Details

The privately printed memoir of a Detroit tannery magnate who went on a vacation in Yellowstone Park and Utah with his daughter and two friends. The 12 larger photographs are photochromes by the Detroit Publishing Company from negatives by William Henry Jackson, while the smaller photographs were taken by Schmidt's party. The leather for the binding was done at Schmidt's own tannery. In addition to the entertaining account of Yellowstone, Schmidt describes a visit to Salt Lake City, where he attends a memorial service for President McKinley at the Tabernacle. The book closes with a long description of the characters at Ophir Mine at Stateline in southwestern Utah, replete with tales of gunfights. Streeter sale VII:4123.

This copy was a gift from the author to Detroit building contractor Albert Albrecht (1853-1936). Schmidt's 21 December 1904 presentation letter reads in part "I compelled some of my friends to work their way through the manuscript. You would appreciate their labor if you knew just how bad my writing was." Some copies were issued with printed photographs rather than the 18 black and white snapshots.