As the fiscal year comes to a close here in the NMSU Library, it is worth celebrating the influx of newly purchased and donated items to Special Collections. Over the last year, the budget for acquiring New Mexico-specific material rose nearly eight-fold, resulting in over 2,100 monographs, reports, maps, pamphlets, brochures, and postcards finding a new home in Branson Library. The search for items took me to bookstores and antique shops in Las Cruces, Ruidoso, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Silver City, El Paso, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Colorado Springs, Denver, Salt Lake City, Provo, Boise, Sacramento, Palm Springs, and Los Angeles. Antiquarian book fairs in Albuquerque and Denver also proved fruitful as I purchased many amazing titles after scouring the dealer's booths.[1] Each Tuesday I also dedicate time to review the latest catalogs and online listings from rare book dealers from across the country, as well as online auctions on eBay and LiveAuctioneers.com. These efforts saw material purchased and shipped to the library from California, Connecticut, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Vermont. The search for new special collections materials is equal parts generous funding, relationship building, persistent sleuthing, and fortuitous timing in order to bring items of research value to library shelves.
Additionally, the university is fortunate to have generous supporters who offer to donate their subject specific libraries or recently authored books to special collections. This year we received two large collections – the first on the indigenous peoples of the American Southwest, and the second regarding the history of the Santa Fe and California trails. Of course, this work would not succeed without a great support network of others in the library who help manage the funds, place the orders, and process and catalog the books – a big thank you to my colleagues for their able assistance!
Astute readers of this blog are likely familiar with my quarterly posts highlighting recently purchased special collections items (see here for the latest installment). These posts overwhelmingly focus on newly published material, however, and I would like to showcase in this post a sample of the rare items purchased over the last fiscal year. Included with the work’s description is the dealer and acquisition price to help illustrate the broad search required to uncover these treasures and the varying costs for unique items.
The Rough and Ready Songster: Embellished with Twenty-five Splendid Engravings, Illustrative of the American Victories in Mexico (New York: Nafis & Cornish, 1848)
This little volume, purchased from the William Reese Company of New Haven, Connecticut, for $1,250.00, celebrates the American victories during the Mexican-American War through song lyrics and was produced to bolster General Zachary Taylor’s bid for the White House in 1848. The songbook includes 25 engraved illustrations, plus this titlepage vignette of “Rough and Ready” himself.
Frontispiece and title page showing the engraved illustrations.
Review of the Mexican War: Embracing the Causes of the War, the Responsibility of its Commencement, the Purposes of the American Government in its Prosecution, its Benefits and its Evils by Charles T. Porter (Auburn, NY: Alden & Parsons, 1849)
Porter’s ambitious essay attempts “to present in a clear and concise manner the facts and considerations which will enable the reader to form a correct opinion concerning the causes of this contest, and the motives and the excuses for its prosecution.” Once owned by a student at Springfield (MA) College, I purchased this leatherbound volume at High-Lonesome Books for $125.00 during a March book buying visit to Silver City.
Title page showing light water staining and foxing.
The Geography and Resources of Arizona and Sonora: An Address Before the American Geographical and Statistical Society by Sylvester Mowry (New York: A. Roman & Co., 1863)
This promotional item focuses on the opportunities to invest in mines along the U.S.-Mexican border. Author Mowry argues passionately that both federal governments should ensure the safety of foreign investment in the silver and copper mines of Sonora and Arizona, particularly from raiding Apache and potential labor strife. This second edition copy includes an amazing tipped-in folded map of the region, including the Mesilla Valley, and was purchased from Buckingham Books of Greencastle, Pennsylvania, for $350.00 during the 2023 Albuquerque Antiquarian Book Fair.
Folded map - "Outline Map of Sonora & Arizona Including the 'Sierra Madre,' Compiled from Authentic Sources and personal Observations"
Documentos Interesantes Sobre Colonizacion by Vicente E. Manero (Mexico City: Imprenta de la V. é hijos de Murguía, 1878)
This anthology of government documents, reports, and laws regarding the settlement of public lands in northern Mexico was acquired from Downtown Brown Books of Portland, Oregon, for $750.00. According to OCLC’s WorldCat, the NMSU Library is the only library in the state to hold this title, and one of only 19 in the United States.
Folded map - "Apuntes Sobre Colonias Civiles Y Militares."
The American and Mexican Pacific Railway, or Transcontinental Short Line: Illustrated with 17 Diagrams and Maps by Alexander D. Anderson (Washington, D.C.: Gibson Brothers, Printers, 1883)
Another promotional item extolling the virtues of a transcontinental railroad line to be built connecting Galveston, Texas with Topolobampo, Sinaloa, a port to be built in the Gulf of California. The author attempts to convince investors through the 80-page pamphlet that the “short line” will connect goods to Asian markets in quicker time than the competing Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Northern Pacific railways. This item was purchased from Auger Down Books in Marlboro, Vermont, for $382.50.
Folded map - "The American and Mexican Pacific Contrasted with other Transcontinental Railways."
The American Indians and Their Music by Frances Densmore (New York: The Woman’s Press, 1926)
This signed copy was purchased from DogStar Books in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for $65.00. A pioneering work in ethnomusicology, the author self-financed her travels to record and transcribe indigenous music, an effort that represents some of the only known verbal source material for several of the tribes. The Zuni, Pima, Papago, Yaqui, and Ute peoples of the American Southwest are studied in this scholarly publication.
Plate - "Ute Indian with Notched Stick Rattle"
Chihuahua Mexico Indexed Pocket Map: Tourists’ and Shipper’s Guide (Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1925)
To Be Catalogued
Luck, or being in the right place at the right time, even if only virtually, can often pay off. This map was offered up on eBay for $75.00 via “Buy It Now” and “Make Offer” options by a seller in San Bernardino, California. The same day the listing went live, I offered the seller $65.00 for this map, which they accepted. The map is in excellent shape and only found in a handful of other academic and research libraries in the United States. A real find in my book.
Folded pocket map
The Apache Kid: A Bear Fight, and Other True Stories of the Old West by William Sparks (Los Angeles: Skelton Publishing Company, 1926)
The recollections of a former Arizona Ranger and his dealings with "Apache raiders," "Mexican bandits," train robbers, and a marauding grizzly bear. Set during the region’s territorial days, the author backs up his claims by reproducing affidavit-like letters from government officials in the book's introduction who verify the stories as authentic. The nicely bound and embossed work was purchased from Star ’N Space Books of Prescott, Arizona, for $290.00.
Gilt embossed cover.
[1] At these shows I also purchased fourteen photographs of the Angus V.V. Ranch on Little Creek near Angus in Lincoln County, and a carte de visite of U.S. Army Lt. Delos Bennett Sackett, who platted the original Las Cruces townsite in the spring of 1849!