Product Description
Dutton, Clarence E.; Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District. USGS Monograph 2, Washington, 1882. Text only, quarto, pp. xiv, 264, colored frontispiece chromolith by Holmes of Smithsonian Butte, 1 additional colored chromolith by Holmes, 9 woodcut plates by Moran, 31 additional full page woodcuts, heliotypes and photoengravings.
The text is complete and in a later dark blue cloth with a gilt spine label. The binding is tight and clean. The text and plates are very clean with the original tissue guards still present. Short tears to a couple of tissue guards. Stamp of the Union Pacific Railroad advertising dept. and the Union Pacific Historical Society on front and rear free end sheets and one stamp on title page. In very good condition.
Clarence Dutton (1841 – 1912) was an American geologist and US Army officer. He was was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, graduated from Yale College in 1860 and took postgraduate courses there until 1862, when he enlisted in the 21st Connecticut Volunteers and fought at Fredericksburg, Suffolk, Nashville and Petersburg during the Civil War.
In 1875 he began his career with the U.S. Geological Survey and worked primarily in the Colorado Plateau region. He wrote several classic papers on the region including geological studies of the high plateaus of Utah (1879-80), and the Tertiary history of the Grand Canyon district. He then wrote a classic study on the Charleston, South Carolina earthquake of 1886. As head of the division of volcanic geology at the USGS, Dutton studied volcanism in Hawaii, California, and Oregon.
Dutton was known for his literary description, and is best remembered today for his descriptions of the geology and scenery of the Grand Canyon region of Arizona and his greatest accomplishment is his Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District. It is still considered the preeminent work on the Grand Canyon. The field artist for Dutton's geological study of the Grand Canyon was William Henry Holmes (1846-1933). Holmes was most noted for his sense of realism and attention to detail and that can be seen in the plates. The landscape painter and printerThomas Moran (1837-1926) was a part of the famous Hudson River School of painters in New York. He is best known for his beautiful works on the American West, especially Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The Union Pacific Railroad was to make use of the illustrations found in the Tertiary History of the Grand Canon for promotional works on the railroad and for guidebooks.
In 1875 he began his career with the U.S. Geological Survey and worked primarily in the Colorado Plateau region. He wrote several classic papers on the region including geological studies of the high plateaus of Utah (1879-80), and the Tertiary history of the Grand Canyon district. He then wrote a classic study on the Charleston, South Carolina earthquake of 1886. As head of the division of volcanic geology at the USGS, Dutton studied volcanism in Hawaii, California, and Oregon.
Dutton was known for his literary description, and is best remembered today for his descriptions of the geology and scenery of the Grand Canyon region of Arizona and his greatest accomplishment is his Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District. It is still considered the preeminent work on the Grand Canyon. The field artist for Dutton's geological study of the Grand Canyon was William Henry Holmes (1846-1933). Holmes was most noted for his sense of realism and attention to detail and that can be seen in the plates. The landscape painter and printerThomas Moran (1837-1926) was a part of the famous Hudson River School of painters in New York. He is best known for his beautiful works on the American West, especially Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The Union Pacific Railroad was to make use of the illustrations found in the Tertiary History of the Grand Canon for promotional works on the railroad and for guidebooks.
