Back to top

Two weeks in the Yellowstone.
Limited edition, souvenir miniature book containing a photographic frontispiece and describing a Vaux family trip to the Yellowstone National Park in August 1885. Photograph shows a woman and young man, probably Mary Vaux and one of her brothers, standing near a geyser, probably one of the several described in the text., Paper binding., Back endpaper printed: Two weeks in the Yellowstone, By Wm. S. Vaux Jr., Contains extract taken from a diary kept at the time. Edition limited fifty copies. Illustrated with Photographs. Price 25 cts., post paid. Address: Wm s. Vaux Jr., 1715 Arch St., Philada., Dedication: To the member of our family, whom I plague while at home and mourn for while away, This book is affectionately dedicated., Registered no. 3., Gift from the heirs of Paul D.I. and Anna S. Maier: James H. Maier, Anthony M. Maier, Marianna M. Thomas, and Cynthia C. Maier., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Copy also held in the Special Collections, Haverford College Library, Haverford, Pa., Housed in phase box., William S. Vaux, Jr. was one of the trio of siblings of Philadelphia photographers, mountaineers, and scientists that also included Mary M. Vaux (1860-1940) and George Vaux, Jr. (1863-1927). An architect by trade, Vaux and his siblings extensively explored, studied, and photographically documented the West beginning with their trip to Yellowstone National Park in 1885. The family photographic expeditions focused on the Canadian Rocky and Selkirk Mountains over a period of twenty years following their first visit to that region in 1887. The Vauxes, recognized as expert glaciologists published and spoke about their observations of the glaciers in the scientific community, delivering papers for such organizations as the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. Vaux was also a member of the American Academy of Natural Sciences and an executive of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia until his untimely death in 1908.