POWELL EXPEDITION DIARY.


[POWELL, JOHN WESLEY. 1834-1902.] RHODES, ALLEN C. Autograph Manuscript of Rhodes C. Allen, being his diary of the Powell Expedition of 1868, 158 pp, with 8 additional pp of notes, and two pencil sketch maps at the rear, 12mo (152 x 77 mm), June 29, 1868 - November 16, 1868, in pencil and ink, original green leather wallet wrappers, some wear.Provenance: William Culp Darrah, author of Powell on the Colorado (1909-1989). RARE FIRST-HAND MANUSCRIPT DIARY OF THE 1868 POWELL EXPEDITION, his second exploratory foray into Colorado, from which few source materials survive. Rhodes C. Allen, a Wesleyan student, served as ornithologist for Powell, collecting specimens as they explored the Rocky Mountains throughout Colorado, making the first ascent of Long's Peak. Powell's 1868 expedition plants the seeds for his first expeditions into the Grand Canyon, the beginning of Powell's greatest work as an explorer. Apparently 4 diaries survive from the expedition: Allen, Lyle Durley (also owned by Darrah), W.C. Wood (at the Huntington Library), and William Byers (at the Denver Public Library). W.H. Daniels also kept a journal, portions of which were published in the Wesleyan Alumni Journal, Vol 1, 1872, but its whereabouts are unrecorded. An important primary source for Powell scholarship, and a fascinating 19th-century account of the early exploration of the Rocky Mountains.