A series of annotated reprints of some of the best and rarest contemporary volumes of travel: descriptive of the aborigines and social and economic conditions in the middle and far West, during the period of early American settlement. Volume 25 is currently missing from the online collection.
Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 comprises thirty-one volumes which contain accurate reprints of rare manuscripts. They were carefully chosen from the mass of material descriptive of travels in the North American interior which this century of continental expansion (1748-1846) provided, and no manuscript has been included unless it possessed permanent historical value. The result is a series which the casual reader will find interesting, and the historian, teacher and scholar, will find invaluable, as it makes available sources of information without which the development of the West, its history and its people cannot be fully understood. The editor has provided numerous footnotes and an introduction to each volume which contains a biographical sketch of the author, an evaluation of the book reprinted and bibliographical data concerning it. The closing volumes are devoted to a complete and exhaustive analytical index to the entire series.
The works included naturally vary in literary merit and attractiveness, but many of them will compare favorably with the better class of modern books of travel, while some, like John Bradbury’s ‘Travels in the interior of America. 1809-11,’ to which vol. V. is devoted, are as fascinating as the best fiction. – Critic, 46:286.
Volume 1. Journals of Conrad Weiser (1748), George Croghan (1750-1765), Christian Frederick Post (1758), and Thomas Morris (1764)
Volume 2. John Long’s journal, 1768-1782
Volume 3. André Michaux’s Travels into Kentucky, 1793-96; François André Michaux’s Travels west of Alleghany Mountains, 1802; Thaddeus Mason Harris’s Journal of a tour northwest of Alleghany Mountains, 1803
Volume 4. Cuming’s tour to the western country (1807-1809)
Volume 5. Bradbury’s Travels in the interior of America, 1809-1811
Volume 6. Brackenridge’s Journal up the Missouri, 1811; Franchère’s Voyage to Northwest coast, 1811-1814
Volume 7. Ross’s Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810-1813
Volume 8. Buttrick’s Voyages, 1812-1819; Evan’s Pedestrious tour, 1818
Volume 9. Flint’s Letters from America, 1818-1820
Volume 10. Hulme’s Journal, 1818-19; Flower’s Letters from the Illinois, 1820-21; and Wood’s Two years’ residence, 1820-21
Volume 11. Part I (1819) of Faux’s Memorable days in America, 1819-1820
Volume 12. Part II (1820) of Faux’s Memorable days in America, 1819-1820; and Welby’s Visit to North America, 1819-20
Volume 13. Nuttall’s travels into the Arkansas territory, 1819
Volume 14. Part I of James’s Account of S.H. Long’s expedition,