Disturnell’s 1849 Emigrant’s Guide to New Mexico, California, and Oregon
When President James K. Polk formally announced the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill during his State of the Union address on December 5, 1848, it set off what is still the largest mass migration in American history. Prospective immigrants could choose among three general routes to California and the gold fields. One of the most popular routes, and the most direct, was overland by any of several paths. While never taking travelers out of sight of land, it was a long and grinding journey of three to six months by wagon or on foot across plains, mountains, and deserts, and many tens of thousands of people took it. Another popular route was south by sea to Panama, across the Isthmus on foot or by coach through steamy, disease infested jungle, and north by sea again along the Pacific Coast to San Francisco. The longest route of all, one which lost favor after 1849, was by ship around Cape Horn and up the Pacific Coast. The journey was expensive, required passage through some of the most dangerous seas in the world, and could take six to eight months. Even so, at least 25,000 people risked this voyage of more than 14,000 miles.
Beginning in late 1848 and continuing through most of the following decade, publishers in the east issued dozens of gold rush guides–some quite good, others downright dangerous–to meet the demand of would-be emigrants. Among the earliest and most popular, first issued about March 1849 and reprinted twice, was John Disturnell’s Emigrant’s Guide to New Mexico, California, and Oregon. Like all such guides, it was meant to be carried along the trail, across the Isthmus, or for months at sea, such that few copies have survived despite the large number published. This copy of the preferred second edition, issued about a month after the first, is rarer still for retaining its handcolored map. No copy of any edition has appeared at auction since 1999, and none of this edition since Warren Howell offered the Streeter copy in Part I of his monumental Catalogue 50: California in 1979; we trace only six institutional holdings.
For more details, see Item 9 in Catalogue 10.
[California Migration–Gold Rush Guides]. John Disturnell. THE EMIGRANT’S GUIDE TO NEW MEXICO, CALIFORNIA, AND OREGON; GIVING DIFFERENT OVERLAND AND SEA ROUTES. COMPILED BY RELIABLE AUTHORITIES. WITH A MAP. Published by J. Disturnell, 102 Broadway, New York. 12mo (15 cm). 80 pp. Folded lithographed map, 29 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (74.5 x 52 cm.), titled “Map of California, New Mexico and Adjacent Countries Showing the Gold Regions &c.,” hand coloring. Original dark green, blind-stamped boards, front board with gilt titles, light edge wear but spine and corners crisp, old dampstain and spotting to rear board not affecting text. Map with light dampstain along lower edge and two clean, 2 1/2- to 3-inch tears that extend into the neatline from each side of the centerfold, light finger soiling, otherwise clean and crisp on strong paper, entirely unsophisticated. Overall about very good [Howes D351 “b” (“issue 2–and best…”); Wagner-Camp, 167a:2; Kurutz, 196b, Howell 50, 59c].
9. $25,000.
