Scarce, Substantial Sacramento Promotional Book

Sacramento County and Its Resources: Our Capital City, Past and Present. A Souvenir of the Bee [Cover title: Where California Fruits Grow: Resources of Sacramento County]

Publication: [Sacramento, CA]: James McClatchy & Co., 1895. Second Edition.

Notes: An uncommon example of boosterism from California's Central Valley in the late nineteenth century.

The book, published by Sacramento's leading newspaper, extols the virtues of Sacramento County agriculture, manufacturing, and other businesses and is illustrated with something like 1000 halftone photographs (often several to a page) of large houses, commercial buildings, and leading men (almost all of the portraits are of men) in the region.

The first edition, published a year before, was several pages shorter and this second edition has 10% to 20% new or revised text and images throughout the book, including a short update section at the end.

12-1/16 by 9-1/4 inches (oblong; tape-bound at the spine, as issued). 223 printed pages, to wit, [i-ii: blank], 1–123, 123a–p (on the State Agricultural Society, with a particular emphasis on thoroughbred horse breeding), 124–138. 138a–b (on the H. S. Crocker Co.), 139–155, 155a, 156–164, 164a, 165–173, 173a, 174, 174a, 175–201, [202: blank]. Plus a folding land use map titled "Map of Sacramento County California showing uses of the soil 1894" (roughly 18 by 24 inches).

Edition + Condition: A very good copy with dampstaining to the first 11 leaves; paper covers somewhat worn and soiled with a short old tape repair on the verso. Still, for a fragile publication, it is well preserved; the map with a one inch tear where it is tipped-in to the book. Uncommon.

Item No: #364370

Price: $400