The Yangtze Valley and Beyond.: An Account of Journeys in China, Chiefly in the Province of Sze Chuan and Among the Man-Tze of the Somo Territory.

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons,, 1900. A fine copy of a travelogue by one of the first women admitted to the Royal Geographical Society First US edition, first printing, in exceptional condition, of this account of 15 months travelling through China, illustrated with many of the author's outstanding photographs. Her books, providing Western audiences with fresh perspectives on faraway places, made her by far the most influential woman traveller of the late 19th century. Isabella Lucy Bird (1831-1904), writing under the name "Mrs J. F. Bishop," journeyed around China in 1896-97, including eight months spent on the Yangtze, as part of a three-year tour of East Asia. In the present work, first published in the UK in 1899, she chronicles her journey along the river westwards from Shanghai, via Ningbo, Hangzhou, Nankou, and Yichang. At Wanxian, Bird left the river and headed due west to the territory of the Miao people, before heading south to pick up the river again at Chongqing. Throughout, she displays a discerning eye for detail, immersing her readers in everything from cultural customs to the economic impact of the opening of treaty ports. "A born traveller, and a lasting inspiration" (Robinson, p. 83), Bird was part of the first cohort of women granted membership of the RGS in 1892, and in 1897 she was also made a member of the Royal Photographic Society. Additional photographs from her China travels appeared in her Chinese Pictures (1900). Provenance: inscribed on the front pastedowns, "William W. Smith, Trinity Hall, Washington PA, Feb. 20 1900". The banker and philanthropist William Wrenshall Smith (1830-1904) founded Trinity Hall as an Episcopalian private military academy for boys in 1879. Two volumes, octavo. Original blue vertical-combed cloth, spines lettered in gilt with gilt stars corresponding to volume number, front boards gilt-lettered with gilt vignette of Chinese city gate, top edges gilt, fore edges untrimmed, bottom edges trimmed. Tissue-guarded half-tone frontispieces, 116 illustrations in text, folding colour route map at rear of vol. I. Title pages printed in red and black. Cloth and gilt bright, touch of wear to extremities, internally clean and bright. A fine copy. Robinson, pp. 81-83; Theakstone, pp. 35-36.