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Hamlin, Charles Edward.

Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoolohy, at Harvard College. Whole Series, Vol. VII. (Geological Series, Vol. 1.) No. V. Observations upon the Physical Geography and Geology of Mount Ktaadn and the Adjacent District. [cover title.]

Cambridge, Mass.: Printed for the Museum, June 1881. 8vo (9.5” x 6.25”), printed wrappers. 189-223, [5] pp., with folding heliotype (6.75” x 9.5”, plus margins) and map (7.25” x 4.5”, plus margins). Inscribed at head of page 1, “J. G. Elder, Esq. with compliments of Chas. E. Hamlin.” CONDITION: Good, wrappers slightly chipped, edges of wrappers toned, a few light stains to lower portion of front wrapper.

One of the earliest detailed and comprehensive descriptions of the topography and physical geography of Mount Katahdin and its surrounding area, including a heliotype of Hamlin’s model of Katahdin and a map, and inscribed by the author.

First published in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard College, Charles E. Hamlin’s “Observations” is an extensive study of the geography and geology of Mt. Katahdin, and covers seven lakes near Katahdin, providing soundings of these bodies of water. In August of 1880, Hamlin undertook an excursion to compare the granite of the lower grounds with Katahdin itself, which at this time had only been partially studied. Hamlin sought to find, if possible, the junction of the granite with the surrounding stratified rocks, and to continue exploring the mountain in order to complete a model of it. The heliotype, which is taken from this model, represents “the upper three thousand feet of the mountain, and an area of about ten miles in length by seven in width. The vertical scale of the model,” Hamlin notes, “is three times greater than the horizontal.” Labeled on the heliotype are peaks, ridges, basins, summits, slides, and spurs.

The map, entitled “Map Prepared to Accompany paper on the Geology of Mt. Ktaadn,” by the J. W. & J. Sewall Company (printed by The Heliotype Printing Co. in Boston) spans from Katahdin in the north to Joe Merry Lakes in the south, and from Millinocket Lake in the east to Sourd Falls in the west. Katahdin’s Abol Trail is marked. Relief is shown by hachure. The J. W. and J. Sewall Company was a surveying, civil engineering, and forestry company established in Old Town, Maine in 1880 by brothers James Wingate and Joseph Sewall. James Wingate (1852–1905) graduated from Bowdoin College in 1877 and after briefly teaching surveying at MIT, he went into business. Today the company is based in Bangor, Maine, and is the oldest continuously operating forestry consulting firm in North America.

Charles Eugene Hamlin (1861–1921) was a professor of geology at Harvard University who visited and studied Katahdin on multiple occasions. The mountain’s Hamlin Peak and Hamlin Ridge are named for him. Hamlin was one of the original members of the Boston-based Appalachian Mountain Club (the oldest outdoor group in the U.S., established 1876), and his article “Routes to Ktaadn,” published in 1881 in the club’s journal, Appalachia, was accompanied by one of the first maps of the mountain. Hamlin came from a distinguished political family: his father was Civil War general Charles Hamlin, and his grandfather was Lincoln’s first vice president, Hannibal Hamlin. Charles later wrote a biography of his grandfather, The Life and Times of Hannibal Hamlin (1899).

REFERENCES: Sarnacki, Aislinn. “Katahdin’s Hamlin Ridge is a lesser-known hiking gem,” Bangor Daily News (1 Oct. 2020); “Charles Eugene Hamlin” at Find a Grave online;  “About Sewall” at Sewall Infrastructure online.

Item #7523

Price: $375.00