Map of the Southern Mines by C.D. Gibbes

Printer’s block of an important Gold Rush map.

This map was originally created by C.D. Gibbes in 1852 for inclusion in Early Recollections of the Mines, and a Description of the Great Tulare Valley by J.H. Carson, the first book printed in Stockton, California. The volume was an important early history of the Gold Rush, and the accompanying maps by Gibbes “were to become landmarks in California’s cartographical history” [Wheat].

It’s replicated here as a print block over a century later, reduced and certainly less legible, but otherwise true to form. Ink stains on the plate and wood indicate former use.