Inspired by the work of scholar and antiquarian book dealer William S. Reese (1955-2018), this exhibition highlights Western Americana in the Clements Library collections. Featuring narratives of travel, settlement, and Native American relations, and including works in Spanish, German, and French, the selections represent some of the rarest and most significant 18th and 19th century sources on the American West.
The Best of the West is an exhibition of 45 printed rarities in early western Americana from the Clements Library collection. The exhibit is a tribute to antiquarian bookseller and outstanding Americanist William S. Reese (1955-2018), drawing upon Reese’s 2017 book The Best of the West for its descriptions of the titles on display.
The books and pamphlets in the exhibition range chronologically from Miguel Venegas’ 1757 Noticia de la California to Thomas F. Dawson & F. J. V. Skiff’s 1879 The Ute War. In between are dozens of the rarest examples of western Americana primary sources, in Spanish, French, English, and German. They include discovery and exploration narratives, 19th-century overland narratives, prints and views of Native Americans, color-plate books, gold and silver mining reports, and other glimpses of the trans-Mississippi West.
Fridays 10am - 4pm
Alcove Exhibition
William L. Clements Library
University of Michigan
909 S. University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI
