1852 Antique Color Lithograph , Promontory Mountains , Great Salt Lake Utah

Description: Antique colored lithograph : " View of part of the Promontory Range , Great Salt Lake " " Ackerman Lith. 379 Broadway N. Y. " 5" x 17 3/4" Double-matted, 11 1/16" x 23 3/8" overall. This antique lithograph was made by James Ackerman ( ca.1814/15 - 1864 ), American lithographer , painter , and engraver , active in New York City in the mid 1800s. He frequently did printing work for the United States government. Although the lithograph itself is not dated, it was published in 1852 in " Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah " on the Stansbury Expedition. 170+ years old. The lithograph is a view seen by the Howard Stansbury expedition of 1849 - 1851 to survey the Great Salt Lake and its surroundings. ( see below for additional information on the Stansbury Expedition ) The lithograph was matted by a former owner, and was pasted-down to the backing board. Two vertical creases from when the lithograph was folded and inserted into the book over 170 years ago. The lithograph is otherwise in nice condition. Shipped flat. Carefully packed for shipment to the buyer. --------- Additional information : The Promontory Mountains are a range in Box Elder County, Utah. The range is oriented north - south and has a length of about 35 miles. The southern portion forms a cape extending 20 miles south into the Great Salt Lake. The First transcontinental railroad was completed with the Golden Spike just north of the range at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory. Today, trains cross the Promontory Point at the southern tip of the range via the Lucin Cutoff railroad causeway across the lake. ------ Howard Stansbury ( 1806 - 1863 ) was a major in the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. His most notable achievement was leading a two-year expedition (1849-1851) to survey the Great Salt Lake and its surroundings. The expedition report, entitled Exploration and survey of the valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah , included a reconnaissance of a new route through the Rocky Mountains and was published in 1852. It provided the first serious scientific exploration of the flora and fauna of the Great Salt Lake Valley as well as a favorable impression of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ( Mormons ), who had settled there beginning in 1847. Stansbury, who was born in 1806 in New York City , was trained as a civil engineer. He joined the Topographical Bureau in 1828. In the service of the bureau he surveyed the James River in 1836, and the Illinois and Kaskaskia Rivers in 1837. In 1838 he oversaw the construction of a road from Milwaukee to the Mississippi River. In July 1838 he joined the new U.S Corps of Topographical Engineers as a first lieutenant. As a member of the corps, he surveyed the Great Lakes in 1841 and conducted an extensive survey of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire harbor between 1842 and 1845. In 1848 he oversaw the start of construction of the Carysfort Reef Light in Florida. During the Mexican - American War he oversaw the building of fortifications in the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1849 Stansbury was ordered to travel from Fort Leavenworth , Kansas to survey the Great Salt Lake in Utah , to evaluate emigration trails along the way (especially the Oregon and Mormon trails ), and to scout for possible locations for a transcontinental railroad. The expedition consisted of 18 men including second-in-command Lieutenant John Williams Gunnison. During the next two years, the expedition explored the Great Salt Lake , Utah Lake and the Cache Valley of northern Utah all the way to Fort Hall in southern Idaho. When he arrived in the Utah Territory, the Mormon leaders were worried that the expedition was part of an effort by the United States government to oust the settlers. Stansbury held a meeting with Brigham Young where he assured the leader that the expedition was purely scientific. Young responded by assigning his personal secretary, Albert Carrington, to assist the expedition. In 1850, Stansbury advised Brigham Young on the extermination of the Timpanogos ( Utahs ; a tribe of Native American Indians who inhabited a large part of central Utah ). Upon completing the mission in Utah, the Stansbury expedition started back east to Leavenworth. Rather than follow the standard Oregon Trail route from Fort Bridger over South Pass through the Sweetwater River valley, Stansbury wanted to scout a more direct route east. Following the advice of Jim Bridger and local trappers and traders , the expedition followed the Blacks Fork River east, crossed the Green River near the present town of Green River , Wyoming and proceeded east along the Bitter Creek valley, crossing the Red Desert, and skirting the northern side of Elk Mountain across the Laramie Plains. They passed over the Laramie Mountains and made their way to Fort Laramie where they struck the Oregon Trail heading east. After the Utah expedition, Howard Stansbury oversaw construction projects in Minnesota and Ohio. He served briefly as a mustering officer in Columbus, Ohio and as a recruiting officer in Wisconsin during the early years of the Civil War. He died in Madison on April 13, 1863. Legacy of the Expedition. The Stansbury expedition to Utah was a huge scientific success. He was the first to determine that the lake was actually a remnant of a larger inland freshwater pluvial lake ( today called Lake Bonneville ). The method of triangulation used to map the lake was a first for the Topographical Corps, and the method was put into standard use by the Corps and later by the US Geological Survey. The expedition collected many different species of birds , plants , lizards and mammals as well as fossils and rock samples. Several esteemed scientists of the day provided commentary in the expedition report. Several discovered species were heretofore unknown to science including Uta stansburiana ( a lizard ) which was named for the expedition leader. In the late 1850s, conflicts with Native American Indians on the Oregon Trail forced the government to establish a new trail through Colorado and Wyoming known as the Overland Trail. Between Laramie and Fort Bridger , the trail follows almost exactly the route mapped by the Stansbury expedition. In the 1860s the First transcontinental railroad also followed the path through southern Wyoming and Utah, although Stansbury had suggested that the railroad descend the Wasatch Mountains via Provo Canyon and cross the valley to the south of the lake rather than the actual path taken through Weber Canyon to the north. In the 20th century two major highways also followed the route: the Lincoln Highway and Interstate 80. Lieutenant John Williams Gunnison wrote a book entitled " The Mormons or Latter-Day Saints , in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake: A History of Their Rise and Progress, Peculiar Doctrines, Present Condition " that, together with the official expedition report, provided many Americans with their first in-depth look at the Mormon faith. In 1853 Lt. Gunnison returned to Utah to survey a railroad route and was killed with seven of his men by a band of Pahvants , a band of indigenous Ute people that lived in the regions of present-day Colorado and Utah.

Price: 75 USD

Location: Coventry, Rhode Island

End Time: 2024-02-19T20:32:10.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD