I am slowly getting some of my 5,500 rare, scholarly, and more common books on the scientific exploration of the American West ready for listing for sale on the web.  I just came to my copy of Volume X of X  REPORTS OF EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS, TO ASCERTAIN THE MOST PRACTICABLE AND ECONOMICAL ROUTE FOR A RAILROAD FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN, 1857.  The binding of my copy has disintegrated because even 50 years ago when I bought it hardly any copies had all of the beautiful colored pictures of birds present.  Despite the deplorable condition of its binding, my copy has every single page and plate intact.  I thought I would share a few of these pictures. Color lithography (chromolithography) was less than a decade old in the US when these plates were produced, but none of the colors have faded at all, as I believe you will agree.

Volume X is all about zoology and has a total of about 130 plates of different kinds of animals but only about 26 are in full color.