[Texas]:

$2,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

ALBERT HANFORD'S TEXAS STATE REGISTER FOR 1877. An elusive installment of Albert Hanford's annual Texas State Register, which was published from 1856 to 1879. Part almanac, part promotional, the present book was an attempt to encourage immigration to Texas in the latter part of the 19th century. The text begins with a series of monthly almanac-style tables giving dawn, dusk, and moonrise times. These are followed by a recounting of the Battle of Galveston and other celebratory and patriotic vignettes lauding Texas. A long section describes Texas by county, giving statistics on population, climate, soil, rivers, minerals, productions, land prices, and more. The introduction to this section ends with a short reminder to immigrants that they "can hire lands in any part of the State, either for money, or on shares of the crops, as may be agreed between the contracting parties." The guide also includes sections on Texas law, courts, post offices, and railroads.The almanac concludes with a section called "The Travelers' Guide," which is composed entirely of steamship and railroad advertisements, followed by a section of general advertisements both for New York and Texas (likely to lure the former to the latter), as well as some ads for various businesses in New Orleans. The advertisements range from refrigerators to pharmacies and cotton merchants to printers, and more. Hanford even advertises his own "Celebrated Purified Whiskey."The large fold-out map (dated 1877, with copyright

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