ATH#240055

Official U.S. Government Survey of

ZUNI Pueblo c.1854

an antique litho by

H.B. Mollhausen

professionally framed, mat, glass

frame = 12 ½” x 15 ½”

exposed area – 7” x 9 ¾”

drawn in 1854 as required by the U.S. government as part of the U.S. Pacific Railroad so that Congress could get a feel for the areas under consideration for the building of a railroad.

then published in a report in book form in 1856.

This lithograph of “Pueblo de Zuni" (the table-top rock formation is now named Dowa Yalanne / Corn Mountain / Zuni Mesa) was produced by A. Hoen & Company (fl. 1848-1943), Baltimore, after an original sketch by expedition artist H. B. Mollhausen (1825-1905). It was printed as an "Itinerary" Plate in Volume III, Part I, following page 66, in the "Itinerary" report, part of the "Route Near the 35th Parallel, Under the Command of Lieutenant A. W. Whipple (1817-1863), Topographical Engineers, in 1853 and 1854."

This is one of the original Monochrome book prints, not a tinted Polychrome limited edition that Hoen produced a few years later (which look very nice, by the way!)

Heinrich Balduin Möllhausen (27 January 1825—28 May 1905) was a German writer, traveler and artist who visited the United States and participated in three separate expeditions exploring the American frontier. After his travel he became a popular and prolific author of adventure stories based on his experiences in America. It is estimated that he produced at least forty-five large works in 157 volumes (including almost forty novels) and eighty novelettes in twenty-one volumes. His popularity and subject matter earned him recognition as the German Fenimore Cooper.

Möllhausen was born near Bonn, Prussia, on 27 January 1825. He was the oldest son of Heinrich Möllhausen, a military officer, and Elisabeth Möllhausen, the Baronesse von Falkenstein. His mother died when he was young and the children were left in the care of relatives while his father traveled about Europe. Financial concerns obligated him to terminate his gymnasium studies in Bonn prematurely. He worked some at agriculture in Pomerania and considered a career in the army but after his experience fighting in the Revolutions of 1848, he left Europe for America in 1849. For the next two years he roamed the frontier in Illinois and Missouri, hunting and occasionally finding work as a sign painter or court clerk.

In 1851 Möllhausen met Duke Paul Wilhelm of Württemberg, a fellow German who was setting out on a scientific expedition to the Rocky Mountains. Möllhausen asked to join the party and was brought along as a scout and draftsman for the journey across the plains to Fort Laramie. They reached the fort without issue but on the trip back they faced numerous difficulties including a prairie fire, hostile Indians and an early winter snowstorm that killed their horses and left them stranded on the prairie. Eventually a mail coach appeared with only enough room to take one of them back to civilization; the duke took the coach leaving Möllhausen to wait until help could be sent. Möllhausen spent months dealing with hostile Indians, famine, and cold. In early January, 1852 a friendly band of Otoes rescued him and several months later he reached New Orleans for a reunion with the duke.

Möllhausen stayed with the duke at his home in New Orleans for a few months and then accepted an offer from the Prussian consul in Saint Louis to accompany a shipment of zoo animals to Berlin. After an absence of nearly four years, Möllhausen returned home in January 1853.

"The indigenous people of northern New Mexico" by Balduin Möllhausen, 1861.

The director of the Berlin Zoo, Hinrich Lichtenstein, introduced Möllhausen to Alexander von Humboldt and they became close friends. Humboldt served as Möllhausen's mentor and patron, encouraging his artistic talents and helping with his first efforts at writing. He also met his future wife, Carolina Alexandra Seifert, who was living at Humboldt's home. Supposedly the daughter of Humboldt's private secretary, there were rumors that Siefert was actually Humboldt's child. In any case, Humboldt showed both Siefert and Möllhausen special favor and it was his guidance that advanced Möllhausen's intellectual and professional life.

At the urging of Humboldt, Möllhausen returned to America in May 1854, carrying a letter of recommendation from his patron. In Washington D.C. he was hired as a topographer and draftsman for an expedition through the western United States to survey a possible route for a proposed transcontinental railway. Under the leadership of Lieutenant Amiel W. Whipple, the party proceeded from Fort Smith, Arkansas, along the thirty-fifth parallel to southern California. In addition to his work in topography, Möllhausen served as a naturalist and made sketches of landscapes and local inhabitants encountered along the way. Most of the illustrations published in Whipple's report were provided by Möllhausen. By March 1854, they had reached California where the group disbanded and he returned home, reaching Berlin in August 1854.

In January 1855 King Frederick William IV provided Möllhausen with a lifetime appointment as custodian of the royal libraries in and around Potsdam, a position that was created at the request of Humboldt. The sinecure left him largely free to pursue his interests in travel and writing. On 6 February 1855 he married Carolina. In 1858 he published his diary of the Whipple expedition, Tagebuch einer Reise vom Mississippi nach den Küsten der Südsee (Diary of a Journey from the Mississippi to the Coasts of the Pacific). The reception of his first book was favorable, especially with the help of Humboldt's active promotion.

In 1857 Lieutenant Joseph Christmas Ives invited Möllhausen to join his expedition to test the navigability of the Colorado River and investigate the Grand Canyon. He accepted the offer and was appointed "artist and collector in natural history." The exploring party assembled in San Francisco in October 1857 and then proceeded to Fort Yuma on the Colorado River. From there they traveled up the Colorado some 530 miles, first in a small steamer built specifically for the trip; and when the river became too shallow, they continued on foot to the Grand Canyon. After exploring the Grand Canyon, they left the river and headed east, reaching Fort Defiance where the expedition ended on May 23, 1858. Results of their exploration were presented by Ives in Report Upon the Colorado River of the West (1861). The illustrations prepared by Möllhausen for the Ives report were some of the first views of the Grand Canyon ever published.

Möllhausen left America for the last time, returning to Germany on September 1, 1858. Using his sketchbooks from the expedition he painted watercolor illustrations that he sent back to Washington for use in Ives' report. In 1861 he published an illustrated diary of his last journey, Reisen in die Felsengebirge Nord-Amerikas bis zum Hoch-Plateau von Neu-Mexico ("Traveling in the Rocky Mountains of North America up to the High Plateau of New Mexico").

For the next forty-seven years, the first twenty-eight in Potsdam, and after 1886 in Berlin, he devoted himself to writing adventure stories inspired by his experiences in America. His output over a long career was immense, at least forty-five large works in 157 volumes (including almost forty novels) and eighty novelettes in twenty-one volumes. The full extent of his output is hard to estimate—his works were published in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies by a variety of publishers. Despite the fact that America was the central focus of his writings, only his first two travel diaries were ever translated into English.

Möllhausen's first three novels--Der Halbindianer ("The Half-Breed", 1861), Der Flüchtling ("The Refugee", 1861), and Der Majordomo (1863)--form a loose trilogy and are set on the American frontier in Missouri, Louisiana, New Mexico, and California: all areas he knew intimately from his previous travels. Der Meerkönig ("The Sea-King", 1867) introduced his more typical formula, dividing each plot evenly between the New World and the Old, with Germany, Scotland, and Norway providing the backdrop for the European part of the action. He was an especially popular author in Germany from about 1860 to 1880 and became known as the German Fenimore Cooper.

Möllhausen died on 28 May 1905 in Berlin. At his request, he was buried in his old buckskin coat in which he claimed to have spent his happiest hours.

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The acquisition of the new western territories started a flow of immigrants to settle them. Then in 1848 the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill opened the flood gates. It soon became apparent that a coast-to-coast railroad line was necessary to rapidly move people, freight, and communications across the country. Everyone agreed that the railroad was necessary but where to put it was another matter. Great disputes arose between the proponents of northern, central, and southern routes, and even among different cities in the same state – everyone wanted the railroad to pass through their town.

In an attempt to decide the location of the route impartially, it was suggested that all of the proposed routes be studied scientifically to determine which one was the best. In 1853 Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Survey Bill, appropriating $150,000.00 for the studies. Four separate survey teams were assigned to study the four main routes under consideration, with two supplemental surveys added later. The teams were given only ten months to complete their tasks.

Lieutenant Amiel Weeks Whipple was put in charge of the 35th Parallel Survey. This is approximately the location later chosen for Route 66 across northern Arizona and New Mexico. Whipple was to study the route from Fort Smith, Arkansas, via Albuquerque and Zuni, to California. Whipple’s expedition left Fort Smith on July 14, 1853. When all the personnel had joined him, the expedition consisted of about 70 men, 240 mules, a huge flock of sheep for food, and a train of large freight wagons. His scientific staff consisted of about 17 people, including astronomers, geologists, naturalists, artists, botanists, and surveyors. Antoine Leroux, who had been Sitgreaves’ guide two years earlier, was hired on as guide.

The 35th parallel survey passed through Albuquerque and the Zuni Pueblo, crossing the 109th meridian (the eastern border of Arizona) on November 28. They proceeded generally west, taking a northward detour around Canyon Diablo, and passed south of San Francisco Mountains through the future site of Flagstaff. Farther west, instead of following Sitgreaves’ trail through the Kingman area, Whipple was hoping to find a better railroad route along the “Bill Williams Fork”, which he hoped would lead directly to the Colorado River. He therefore looped south along the Big Sandy and Bill Williams Rivers, reaching the Colorado near the site of Parker Dam. He then traveled north along the river, crossed into California near the Mohave Villages, and continued on to the Los Angeles area.

Published travel diaries of the Whipple Expedition are not hard to find. Whipple’s daily itinerary has been published by Grant Foreman in A Pathfinder in the Southwest, John Sherburne’s diary is published as Through Indian Country to California by Mary McDougall Gordon, and H.B. Mollhausen’s German account was translated by Mrs. Percy Sinnett and published in 1858 as Diary of a Journey From the Mississippi to the Coasts of the Pacific (reprinted in 1969). There are also additional accounts by Whipple and Jules Marcou in volume 3 of the Pacific Railroad Report, and at least two unpublished diaries from other expedition members.

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