Catalog Archive
Auction 148, Lot 298

"Plan of the Remains of Some Ancient Works on the Muskingum [with magazine] The Columbian Magazine, or Monthly Miscellany, for May, 1787", Columbian Magazine

Subject: Marietta, Ohio

Period: 1787 (published)

Publication:

Color: Black & White

Size:
8.6 x 7.1 inches
21.8 x 18 cm
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This rare issue with the map and accompanying article represent the birth of American Anthropology as they are "thought to have been the first description and plan of an American earthwork ever published" (American Anthropologist, Vol 10, p. 343.). About two pages are devoted to an "Account of Some Remains of Ancient Works, on the Muskingum..." by Captain Jonathan Heart of the First American Regiment. Heart was commissioned as a Captain by Congress and was ordered to the Muskingum Valley to protect the surveying parties there. It was during his service there that he produced the account and plan of the ancient Indian works located near present-day Marietta, Ohio. As an experienced draughtsman it is likely the plan of the ancient mound works was his. The plan contains a key for circular mounds, walls, caves and graves, and details an area of about one square mile on the east bank of the Muskingum River. The plan is on a scale of 10 chains to an inch (666 feet). The accompanying magazine contains another fold-out plate and extracts of articles by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.

References: Wheat & Brun #663.

Condition: B

Issued folding with scattered foxing and staining along one fold. A few short fold separations have been closed on verso with archival tape and there is a binding trim at lower right. Disbound text is good with scattered foxing and toning.

Estimate: $500 - $650

Sold for: $375

Closed on 2/19/2014

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