# Is "Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries" by John Wesley Powell a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries by John Wesley Powell (Government Printing Office, 1875) is identified by: Washington: GPO, 1875, quarto, collating xi and 291 pages, with two large folding sheets at the rear -- the "Green River from the Union Pacific Railroad to the Mouth of White River" map and a companion river profile, not present in every copy as issued -- plus 80 wood-engraved illustrations numbered 1 to 80 in the text, printed on roughly 72 plates since several plates carry more than one numbered figure.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Washington: GPO, 1875, quarto, collating xi and 291 pages, with two large folding sheets at the rear -- the "Green River from the Union Pacific Railroad to the Mouth of White River" map and a companion river profile, not present in every copy as issued -- plus 80 wood-engraved illustrations numbered 1 to 80 in the text, printed on roughly 72 plates since several plates carry more than one numbered figure
- The narrative interleaves Powell's account of his celebrated 1869 descent of the Colorado with material drawn from his better-documented second expedition of 1871-72, without clearly separating the two
- As a government publication issued under the Smithsonian's imprint rather than a trade publisher, first-edition copies are found in more than one original binding style -- plain dark cloth in some copies, gilt-lettered cloth or half calf in others -- so binding alone is not a reliable guide; collating the text against the full run of 80 numbered illustrations and confirming both rear sheets are present is the primary check for completeness
- Publisher imprint reads Government Printing Office
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | John Wesley Powell |
| Publisher | Government Printing Office |
| Year | 1875 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Washington: GPO, 1875, quarto, collating xi and 291 pages, with two large folding sheets at the rear -- the "Green River from the Union… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Washington: GPO, 1875, quarto, collating xi and 291 pages, with two large folding sheets at the rear -- the "Green River from the Union Pacific Railroad to the Mouth of White River" map and a companion river profile, not present in every copy as issued -- plus 80 wood-engraved illustrations numbered 1 to 80 in the text, printed on roughly 72 plates since several plates carry more than one numbered figure. The narrative interleaves Powell's account of his celebrated 1869 descent of the Colorado with material drawn from his better-documented second expedition of 1871-72, without clearly separating the two. As a government publication issued under the Smithsonian's imprint rather than a trade publisher, first-edition copies are found in more than one original binding style -- plain dark cloth in some copies, gilt-lettered cloth or half calf in others -- so binding alone is not a reliable guide; collating the text against the full run of 80 numbered illustrations and confirming both rear sheets are present is the primary check for completeness.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Powell rewrote and reissued the narrative in 1895, in a popularized form, as "Canyons of the Colorado" (Flood & Vincent, Meadville, Pennsylvania) -- a different text from the 1875 government report. The now-common title "The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons" belongs to Dover Publications' 1961 unabridged reprint of that 1895 text, not to the 1875 first edition or to the 1895 original.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries* by John Wesley Powell a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/exploration-of-the-colorado-river-of-the-west-and-its-tribut
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.