Geologic History of the Yosemite Valley.

Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1930. First edition. Quarto. 137, [1] pp. plus 52 plates (including a fold out color map) and three folding color maps in rear cloth pocket. Publisher's Brown cloth with gilt spine lettering. original printed wrappers bound in. Previous owner's name and address on front blank. A very good copy.This copy with a tipped in typed letter on Congress off the United States letterhead used by Congressman J. H. Hoeppel, Representative for the 12th District to Mr. Harry W. Scott, librarian at the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, and dated 1933. Signed in pen by Secretary I. P. Blade. Matthes came to the US in 1891 to study at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and graduated as a Civil Engineer. Geology and glaciology was his hobby and luckily enough it became his work. Matthes joined the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1896, where he mapped and surveyed several National Parks, including Yosemite. In the 1920s he set out to determine if John Muir’s Yosemite glacier theories were correct. Matthes found that glaciers were a major force in creating Yosemite Valley and other features and published his findings as Geologic History of the Yosemite Valley USGS Professional Paper 160 (1930)