Blanchard, Rufus. Discovery and Conquests of the North-West, with the History of Chicago

Blanchard, Rufus. Discovery and Conquests of the North-West, with the History of Chicago. Wheaton: R. Blanchard & Company, 1879. First Edition. [9509] Full leather, front joint cracked with cover just barely attached by one cord, edges of binding rubbed, 9 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches, a clear wrapper has been attached to help keep the boards in place. 768 clean pp. with index, text block tight. 7 maps (2 colored, 1 bound in upside down) and 5 b/w plates. Fair. Howes B508. The book we offer here most closely matches an 1881 edition in Howes, but our title & copyright pages both have 1879.Rufus Blanchard (1821-1904), b. Lyndeborough, NH; d.  Blanchard was at times a photographer, mapmaker, publisher, viewmaker, bookseller, historian, and publisher. He was active in Chicago in the second half of the nineteenth century. After studies at Ipswich Academy (in which he excelled in Latin and Mathematics) in 1835 when 14 years of age, he went to New York City to live with his brother Calvin, a b