This is “a new edition, with a supplement, continuing the subject to the year 1829.” The first edition had appeared in 1824 and each subsequent edition expanded on the earlier one. This edition contains an amazing amount of information about the myriad early steam engines and their patents. Each of the53 plates is a diagram of a different, named engine.

•  Publisher's green pebbled cloth with paper title-label, paper shelving label at top of spine, cloth with patches of discoloration. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. A bit of foxing/spotting; in fact, however, a clean and good copy.  (27328)

The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth was established in Philadelphia, in December 1824, to disseminate information on the latest improvements in the development of transportation systems including roads, railways, canals, bridges, etc.; William Strickland, Mathew Carey, Richard Peters, Jr., Joseph Hemphill, Stephen Duncan, and Gerard Ralston were among its members.

•  Shoemaker 15654, 21855, 19953, 19955, & 19949. Light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label. Light age-toning and spotting, more pronounced in last few leaves. Final (blank) leaf with early inked ownership signature; child’s pencilled drawings on one blank page.

steamboats and locomotives

•  American Imprints 40-3037; Goldsmiths'-Kress 3730-3731; Sabin 31107.   19th-century half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings moderately rubbed overall with some spots of discoloration, three volumes with front joints cracked, sewing holding. Ex–social club library: some spine heads reinforced with library cloth tape, 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, no other markings. Variously, throughout, sections of waterstaining, browning, offsetting; the occasional leaf torn without loss, chipped, or with margin reinforced; varying degrees of age-toning, with the majority of pages clean. Massive quantities of data on early 19th-century commerce, ready to be made use of for scholarship or simply to serve a reader's pleasure.  (30395)

Binding:  Publisher's blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and train vignette stamped in black and gilt, vignette extending onto spine.

•  Binding as above, extremities very slightly rubbed, spine dimmed. Light waterstaining to inner margins of front fly-leaf and half-title, otherwise clean. A volume “got up,” given its content, with remarkable style and charm!  (29124)

Provenance:  Inscription of “Henry M. Pierce / Jersey City / NJ.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 44628; Drake, Almanacs, 3826.   Recent limp navy cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and date; extremities very slightly rubbed, otherwise very clean and fresh. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription as above. Pages age-toned with a few scattered spots; some pages trimmed closely, with headers occasionally touched but not taken. Nice!  (29641)

Click either image for an enlargement.

The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth was established in Philadelphia, in December 1824, to disseminate information on the latest improvements in the development of transportation systems including roads, railways, canals, bridges, etc.; as the first line of text here puts it, “The acting committee of ‘The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvement,’ have been, from the formation of the society, particularly desirous to lay before the public correct information on the subject of Railways.” William Strickland, Mathew Carey, Richard Peters, Jr., Joseph Hemphill, Stephen Duncan, and Gerard Ralston were among the society’s members.

Thein-text illustrations depict a profile of a flat railway with the flange, a section of the rail-wagon, and a bird’s eye view of the railroad. The spine title gives: “Railways. Feb. 25, 1825,” and the foot of p. [1]: “No. 9.”

•  Shoemaker 21851. Light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label. Minor offsetting, pages otherwise clean.

This governing document includes a list of officers of the Society, as well as the by-laws and goals of the group.

Uncommon: OCLC and RLIN find only six non-microform holdings.

•  Shoemaker 17579; Goldsmiths’-Kress 24229. Later light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label. Title-page with rubber-stamped numeral in upper margin. Pages age-toned, with some light staining.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth was established in Philadelphia, in December 1824, to disseminate information on the latest improvements in the development of transportation systems including roads, railways, canals, bridges, etc.; William Strickland, Mathew Carey, Richard Peters, Jr., Joseph Hemphill, Stephen Duncan, and Gerard Ralston were among its members.

•  Shoemaker 25712. Period-style light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label, volume bound with 34 blank leaves at the back. Moderate foxing; second leaf starting to separate along gutter.

•  Shoemaker 21855. Later light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label. Slightly age-toned, with small paper flaw to one outer margin, else clean.

This has an elegant emblematic frontispiece and an engraved coat of arms on the title-page.

Binding: Contemporary mottled sheep, spine gilt-extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped pomegranate decorations. Marbled endpaprs; all edges speckled red.

•  Palau 273666.   Bound as above; covers and edges with abrasions, joints and extremities rubbed, spine leather with fine cracks. A copy lacking the map and priced accordingly. Paper browned in some quires by nature of the paper; otherwise, scattered light to moderate foxing only. A nice copy.  (29257)

Searches of WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locateonly one copy of each item, those copies being at the New-York Historical Society; bound with the N-YHS's copy of Taylor is a separately paged, six-page publication with a caption title “Hackney coaches,” which gives rules and regulations concerning taxi fares. (The copy of Taylor reported at the New York Public Library is a photostat of the Society's copy.)

The survival of a bound-together duo particularly useful to cartmen and another to hacks, along with a separately bound copy of the text that would have been independently useful to both, raises tantalizing questions about how the pamphlets were sold and left Bowne's shop — i.e., as individual items, as mix-and-match two-fers, bound or only to-be-bound?? The questions may be unresolvable as the surviving exemplars constitute so small a sample!

•  Contemporary sheep with modest blind roll around the perimeter of the boards; plainly rebacked. Overall clean; stray staining in Ordinances, age-toning overall. Housed in a light brown cloth open-back case with dark brown leather spine label, and cloth chemise (by MacDonald of New York). An amazing survival of two interesting works relating to “New-York's” public spaces.  (29764)