Historic Highways of America [Large Paper Edition Complete in 16 Volumes with Prospectus] de Hulbert, Archer Butler - 1905

Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1905. Number 5 of 50 Large Paper sets. 16 volumes, small 4tos, various paginations. Each complete with maps, illustrations, and facsimiles, some folding. Volume 1 is signed by Hulbert with a handwritten statement of limitation opposite the title page. Uniformly bound in publisher's gray cloth with printed spine labels, t.e.g. Smudging and soiling to boards, bumped corners, few instances of fraying to cloth, and chipping to spine labels. A few volumes have instances of moisture staining to boards, with the same internally, mostly to margins. One old tape repair to frontis in volume 10. Still generally very good. Included is the [16]pp prospectus in self wrappers.

Tremendous set of this important and early publication from the Arthur H. Clark Company which was published in sixteen volumes, including the index, starting in 1902.  Contains a wealth of information gathered by the historian, Archer Butler Hulbert (1873-1933) from manuscript sources.  Clark and Brunet state in their bibliography of the press, however, the publisher wished Hulbert had gathered more.  The publication was met with mixed reviews and even Hulbert expressed his own shortcomings on the project in a letter, sent years later, to Clark:

"I was a long way from being satisfied with the preparation of the Historic Highway Series."


In any event, the set remains an important one from the publisher and is scarce with prospectus and in the large paper edition.  We have not encountered one in the trade.  

Clark 148 (noting the actual number of large paper sets as 55 to 57).