[BACKUS, Mary editor]. Siam and Laos, as Seen by Our American Missionaries. Philadelphia, Presbyterian Board of Publications [1884].
8vo. Original red cloth, lettered in gilt; pp. 552, folding colour-lithographic map, wood-engraved illustrations; apart from even fading to spine and short marginal tear to map, a fine copy of a rather uncommon work; colour-printed bookplate of John Percival Jefferson inside front cover.
First edition. 'Siam has not been disciplined by English and French guns, like China, but the country has been opened by missionaries' judged His Grace, the late Ex-Regent of Siam (motto on title-page). Most of the volume deals with all aspects of Thailand, cultural, historical, and ethnological. The missionaries, welcomed by King Chulalangkorn, were probably the only group of Westerners in the county who did not approach it from a commercial or colonial perspective. The final part of the volume, from page 419 to the end is on Laos. A few passages touch upon Cambodia.
Pruvenance: John Percival Jefferson (born 1852) was a Warren, PA based entrepreneur, member of the American Association for Advancement of Science, Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, National Geographic Society, American Institute of Civics as well as trustee of Warren Public Library.
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