A Journal of the Adventures of Matthew Bunn; First Published at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1796

Chicago: The Newberry Library, 1962. A Facsimile of the copy in the Everett D. Graff Collection at The Newberry Library--Limited facsimile edition of 2000. Wraps. [8], 24 pages. Foreword by Colton Storm. This facsimile edition is based on what at the time was the only known copy of this work (at at the time of this cataloguing still appeared to be the case). Some of the limited edition copies are now in institutions/libraries and thus not available to the collectibles market. There were later editions of Bunn's tale, including one (1828) in which future President Millard Filmore, affirmed the authenticity of the narrative. Matthew Bunn [ca1772- ] was born in Brookfield, Massachusetts and enlisted for a western expedition about age 19. He was captured by Indians in Ohio and when he escaped from them he as captured by George Girty [perhaps a relative of the notorious Simon Girty]. After he escaped from Girty he went to Detroit arriving there in April of 1793. After many adventures he returned to Massachusetts in 1795. In October of 1826 Bunn swore in an affidavit that his story was true. The story of his adventures has gone through several editions but is still considered very rare in the original. [See scholarship on this narrative in The Rarest Story of Adventure in the Region of Niagara: Narrative of Matthew Bunn. Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society 1904 7: 379-436.]. The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics related to the history and cultural production of Western Europe and the Americas over the last six centuries. The Library is named to honor the founding bequest from the estate of philanthropist Walter Loomis Newberry. Core collection strengths support research in several subject areas, including maps, travel, and exploration; music from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century; early contact between Western colonizers and Indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere; the personal papers of twentieth-century American journalists; the history of printing; and genealogy and local history. Although the Newberry is a noncirculating library, it welcomes researchers into the reading rooms who are at least 14 years old or in the ninth grade, and have a research topic corresponding to the nature of the collections. Additional public services are offered through exhibitions, meet-the-author lectures, adult education seminars, and other programming. Newberry Trustee Everett D. Graff (1885-1964) donated his library of Western Americana to the Newberry in 1964. The collection originally comprised some 10,000 books and manuscripts, many of them extremely rare, most dealing with the exploration and settlement of the trans-Mississippi West in the nineteenth century. Condition: Very good.

Keywords: Detroit, Old Northwest, Military Expedition, Capture, Indians, Prisoner, Fort Washington, Fort Hamilton, George Girty, Escape, Survival

[Book #82017]

Price: $60.00

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