137. MARVIN & HITCHCOCK, BOOKSELLERS AND STATIONERS. Pioneer Book Store.... [San Francisco, ca. 1850]. Broadside with wood-engraved illustration of the bookstore’s interior above, printed advertising beneath (17.7 x 11.5 cm; 7 x 4-1/2 inches). Left blank margin slightly stained and damaged, otherwise fine.

            This charming little broadside advertisement drawn by Harrison Eastman (see Groce & Wallace) and engraved by Hyatt documents the business establishment of Marvin & Hitchcock, Pioneer Booksellers. They published books, maps, and letter sheets, and sold books, stationery, pocket cutlery, and “fancy articles” in San Francisco in the early 1850s. They appear in the early San Francisco directories at 168 Montgomery Street near Clay. To facilitate sale of their letter sheets, they published The Complete Letter Writer: Containing a Great Variety of Letters on the Following Subjects: Relationship, Business, etc. (San Francisco, 1853). Another of their publications was Urculla’s California Text-Book (San Francisco, 1852; q.v.). The firm suffered losses in the devastating fires of 1850. In a letter in the Augustus Hale archive in the Clifford Sale (California & the West 133), Augustus Hale wrote: “Our intimate friends, Marvin & Hitchcock, had already had one large Store burned...& as it was evident their other Store must go.”
($100-300)

138. MATTHES, François E. Geologic History of the Yosemite Valley. Washington: GPO, 1930. vi, 137 pp., 46 photographic plates (some on both sides of a sheet; 2 folded), 1 photographic map, 4 folded colored maps (two in rear pocket). 4to, original grey printed wrappers. Back wrap (with map pocket) detached but present, spine a little chipped, otherwise fine.
            First edition. U.S. Department of the Interior Geological Survey Professional Paper 160. In what remains one of the definitive, exhaustive works on its subject, Matthes undertook to demonstrate in terms comprehensible to the average reader that Yosemite was formed by successive glaciations rather than a single cataclysmic event. Matthes was assisted by Frank C. Calkins.
($75-150)

139. McGLASHAN, C[harles] F[ayette]. Terrible! Thrilling! True! History of the Donner Party. A Tragedy of the Sierra [view, with “Photo Eng. Co. N. Y. White” at lower right corner] Price, Paper, — $1.00. Sent Prepaid to any Address on Receipt of Price, by the Author C. F. McGlashan, Truckee, Cal. Sacramento: H. S. Crocker & Co., [ca. 1879]. Illustrated promotional printed on heavy paper in black with red and green decorative border (27.7 x 35.5 cm; 11 x 14 inches). Fine.
            A window card promotional piece for McGlashan’s book (see Zamorano 80 #53). Peters, California on Stone, p. 106 (Crocker). The company that printed this ad is still in business as a lithographer. These were plentiful on the market for many years because a remainder was found, but hopefully the stack is becoming thin.
($300-600)