Wisconsin: Its Geography and Topography

(WISCONSIN) LAPHAM, I[ncrease] A. Wisconsin: Its Geography and Topography, History, Geology and Mineralogy: Together with Brief Sketches of Its Antiquities, Natural History, Soil, Productions, Population and Government. Milwaukee: I.A. Hopkins, 1846. 2nd ed., greatly improved. 208pp. Colored folding map. Later brown cloth, gilt leather label pasted. Cloth soiled, wear to spine, both hinges cracked but text block still attached to binding. Occasional foxing, light dampstaining to inner lower edge, small closed tear to map, else very good. Howes L-97. Bradford 2917. Sabin 38979. AII (Wisconsin) 290. Graff 2398 (1st ed). McMurtrie (Wisconsin) 182 (ref.). An early Wisconsin promotional work, the "second edition, greatly improved" after the first edition of 1844, just a few years before statehood. Contains information on the region broken down by county. Lapham (c. 1811-1875), a geologist and naturalist in Milwaukee, was an early advocate for a storm prediction agency for the Great Lakes region, which developed into the National Weather Service. The attractive folding map, by Sidney E. Morse and Samuel Breese, shows the southern part of the territory and is dated 1845. It identifies mines, canals, and railroads. Howes notes that the first edition had been the "first bound book printed in Milwaukee.".