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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Ives, Joseph Christmas, ?-1868 Report upon the Colorado River of the west, explored in 1857 and 1858 by Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives, coprs of totgraphical engineers, under the direction of the office of explorations and surveys, A. A. Humphreys, captain of topogrpahical engineers, in charge.

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06051 Author/Creator: Ives, Joseph Christmas, ?-1868 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Book Date: 1861 Pagination: 1 v. : 353 p. : ill. Height: 29 cm, Width: 24 cm Order a Copy

Published by the Government Printing Office. Contains a printed note from John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, transmitting Ives' report John Cabell Breckinridge, Vice President and President of the Senate 1857-1861. Includes a printed resolve of Asbury Dickens, Secretary of the Senate, authorizing 10,000 extra copies of Ives' report. Ives includes an introductory letter stating "The main object of the work being to ascertain the navigability of the Colorado." Ives cites the movement of troops into the territory of the Mohave Tribe as the main obstacle in navigating the Colorado during his expedition. Includes fold out maps and sketches throughout the text. Contains various color and black and white lithographs of the landscape, vegetation, natural features, people, insects, and animals of the area explored. Organized into sections including a general report, a hydrographic report, a geological report, a study of botany, and a zoological report. Contains appendices on astrological observations, barometric discoveries, a list of camps with distances, latitudes, longitudes, and altitudes, and remarks on the construction of the maps. Covers various locations pertinent to exploration of the Colorado River, including Fort Yuma, Mohave Canyon, Mojave Valley, Black Canyon, Great Bend, Diamond River, Colorado Plateau, San Francisco Forest, Moquis, and Fort Defiance, among others.

Ives, Joseph Christmas, -1868
Floyd, John Buchanan, 1806-1863
Breckinridge, John C. (John Cabell), 1821-1875
Dickins, Asbury, 1780-1861

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