Yellowstone National Park; or, The Great American Wonderland: A Complete Description of All the Wonders of the Park, Together with Distances, Altitudes, and Such Other Information...

Item Details

Kansas City, MO, Publishing House of Ramsey, Millett & Hudson, 1882

12mo; 99pp. With seven woodcut illustrations from photographs by H. B. Colfee, one of the earliest photographers to work extensively in Yellowstone; and a full-page map, plus publisher's advertisements. Original pictorial black cloth, decorated in gilt and black; a near-fine copy of a scarce early guide to Yellowstone, documenting the development of tourism in the Park and the emerging American national-park movement. The National Park Service cites Wylie's 1882 guide in its publication 'Managing the “Matchless Wonders”: A History of Concession Development in Yellowstone National Park, 1872–1966'.

Presentation copy with significant early Montana provenance. INSCRIBED at Bozeman, Montana Territory, September 7, 1883, by Montana pioneer and cattleman Joseph M. Lindley to D. L. Glenn (Daniel Logan Glenn) of North Vernon, Indiana. Lindley and Glenn were closely connected through the unusual intermarriage of the two families: Glenn's father married Lindley's widowed mother, while Lindley married Glenn's sister, Rachel, in 1882 (so, Glenn was both Lindley's half-brother and brother-in-law!).  Beneath Lindley's presentation is a contemporary or later annotation, in a different hand and ink: “Yellow Stone Park in North / West corner of Wyoming.”

A particularly interesting association copy, combining an early Yellowstone guidebook with contemporary Montana Territory provenance and a presentation inscription made at Bozeman only one year after the book's publication. 

Full title: Yellowstone National Park; or, The Great American Wonderland: A Complete Description of All the Wonders of the Park, Together with Distances, Altitudes, and Such Other Information as the Tourist or General Reader Desires. A Complete Hand, or Guide Book for Tourists.

An important early guidebook to Yellowstone, published only ten years after the establishment of the national park and during the formative years of Yellowstone tourism. Wylie was among the earliest promoters of commercial travel to the Park, while Henry Bird Colfee was one of the pioneering photographers of Yellowstone. Colfee's photographs provided the basis for the illustrations in this volume. In 1881–82, Wylie and Colfee also traveled together giving illustrated lectures promoting Yellowstone as a tourist destination, using projected photographs to introduce the Park to audiences beyond the region. The book thus forms part of the earliest systematic effort to make Yellowstone's scenery known to the American public and encourage tourism. Colfee supplied the photographic material while Wylie provided the narrative and promotional presentation.