Scope and Contents: Catalog of books in the library of H.A. Rattermann, chiefly listing books pertaining to travel and exploration; contains only a fraction of the books once in Rattermann's library.
Ms. codex.
H.A. Rattermann emigrated from Germany to Cincinnati in 1846. "Economic success did not come to the young man until, at the age of twenty-six, he established the German Mutual Fire Insurance Company ... While his self-made position did not bring him great wealth, it enabled him to support a large family, gather a valuable private library ... His private library was that of a self-educated scholar and very wide reader. It comprised more than 7,000 volumes and a large number of pamphlets, also files of newspapers, and was particularly rich in travel literature concerning colonial North and South America, and in works on the history of German settlers and pioneers from the earliest times to the nineteenth century. A group of friends bought the Rattermann library and presented it to the University of Illinois in 1916."--Dictionary of American Biography (1935), v. XV, p. 387-8.
Title from contemporary ms. label on front board.
Armorial bookplate of William Horatio Crawford, Lakelands, Cork, on front paste-down (likely transferred from a different book after rebacking).
Binding: Rebacked in 20th century with quarter maroon morocco over 19th-century marbled boards; commercially ruled leaves, with alphabetical tabs cut into fore-edges.
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