One of the most joyful things about book collecting, is the way that a collection can always take its own course, and according to individual interests. There are some that collect for great name authors, or great works of literature - but the first impulse behind collecting is the desire to know something about, and become acquainted to, the past.

Nebraska itself, almost the dead center of America might be considered 'the heart' of the United States, but it may surprise you to learn of its wild roots.

For the serious collector, there are a wealth of avenues to explore when researching this American heartland. Consider Rev. C.B. Boynton and T.B. Mason's work A Journey Through Kansas with Sketches of Nebraska, published in 1855 (we have to remind ourselves, if the title seems a little tangential to our topic, that Nebraska was only admitted into the Union in 1867, and previous to this was described as 'the wild Nebraska Territories'). What is intriguing about this hardback, first edition in brown cloth that can be found available (published by Cincinnati: Moore) is that it alludes to the very earliest of beginnings of the state, its character, flora and geology.

Similarly, the English emigre John Bratt's story Trails of Yesterday might interest the student of Nebraska's past as a natural continuation of that story. Although published in 1921 (The University Publishing Co, Lincoln) it features the author's experiences as a rancher and 'bullwhacker' supplying the army outposts in the late 1860s and 1870s. This is at a time after Nebraska has been recognized, but still not fully 'opened up' as they say. It is regarded as a minor classic of the growth of central plains ranching and lifestyle preceding the growth of industrial railways of the U.S. This volume can be found as a first edition, in a very attractive blue cloth-bound hardback with gilt illustrated cover of wagons rolling along a prairie.

Perhaps the king of any collection on Nebraska, however, is the weighty tome The Official State Atlas of Nebraska (1885, Everts and Kirk, Philadelphia) whichcompiled a series of the earliest of geographical survey maps for the new centralizing government authority, and a true marvel of precision cartography. A volume of this would be exceedingly rare to find, and precious if all of its maps were undamaged and in one piece.