A Report on Washington Territory.

Item Details

New York, Seattle, Lake Shore Eastern Railway, 1889, 8vo, maroon publisher's pebbled cloth; title in gilt on front cover and spine.

RUFFNER, W[illiam]. H[enry]. A Report on Washington Territory. Two folding maps (U.S.A. uncolored 16 × 22½ and colored map of Washington Territory 24 × 31¾) in pocket on the inside back pastedown ; 6 maps on unnumbered inserted leaves; 12 black and white illustrations from drawings and halftones on unnumbered inserted leaves; and 242 pp. 8vo, maroon publisher's pebbled cloth; title in gilt on front cover and spine.  New York: Seattle, Lake Shore Eastern Railway, 1889

There are several very small separations in the corner folds of the Washington map, and there is a mis-crease in the margin of the U.S. map..

Ruffner (1824-1908) was born in Lexington, Virginia where his father was on the faculty of Washington College (Washington & Lee University). of Virginia’ s public school system. Before the Civil War he  as a Presbyterian minister and farmer in Rockingham County. After the Constitution of 1869 mandated the creation of public schools, the General Assembly elected Ruffner the state’s first superintendent of public instruction Longwood University). During his twelve-year tenure Ruffner gave Virginia’s public school system a lasting foundation and as he defended the system from vigorous opposition and the shortfalls generated by the state’s massive war debt. One of his firm beliefs was that Black and White students should have equal opportunities in their education.  Ruffner owned slaves, and he advocated the gradual emancipation and colonization of the state’s African Americans. He raised funds for the American Colonization Society.

Ruffner met the geologist William Barton Rogers when they were both teaching at the University of Virginia and became a keen armature geologist, it was this interest that took him in 1887 to spend 5 weeks in Washington Territory and publish this book two years later..