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Radges’ Directory of the City of Topeka for 1887-8.

[Topeka, Kansas: Samuel Radges, 1887]. 8vo, original purple cloth, gilt spine, gilt advertisements to covers. [7], 20-482, [2] pp., double-page chromolithographic map, folding map, 12.75” x 21.875”, numerous color-printed advertisements, illus.

An excellent, quite substantial western city directory, with maps and advertisements printed in color.

It includes a double-page advertising map of the state of Kansas for Strickler, Daniels & Pounds, General Real Estate Dealers, a fold-out Map of the City of Topeka and Suburbs, an introductory article on Topeka, a street and avenue guide, a list of additions and subdivisions, sections on city and state government, amusements, banks, railways, churches, clubs, associations, schools and so on. All of the heads of household are listed by name, occupation and address. The directory is replete with advertisements for all manner of businesses, most of them illustrated and printed on color backgrounds.

Radges began publishing Topeka directories in 1869 (for 1870). All seem to be scarce. OCLC records only two copies of the 1887-8 edition, at Yale and the New York Historical Society. No copies recorded in American Book Prices Current (past forty years). The only Radges directory offered by the Eberstadt’s was the first of 1870, catalog 115, item 602. Not in Streeter.

CONDITION: Good, rubbed, spine sunned, front hinge cracked and sprung but holding.

Item #2591

Price: $2,250.00