two volumes, oblong folio, each volume contains a printed title-page, volume one has two leaves of printed text, 14 large photos, volume two contains 13 photographs (10 x 12 ½ inches), each mounted on linen. Some wear and soiling to bindings, lower right hand corner of the front cover of volume two with a portion missing. The prints are generally good dark prints in unfaded condition. A very rare work titled on the bindings: Mather's Historical Oil Region Views of Western Pennsylvania. The work was made and published by the pre-eminent photographer of the Pennsylvania oil fields, John A. Mather. NUC lists the title but with no locations. OCLC locates one library owning volumes one and two, but describing each volume as having 13 plates, and one location only for a volume three. The first oil well in the United States was drilled by E. L. Drake in Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, near Titusville, in 1859. On the 29th of August oil was struck. John A. Mather, a recent English immigrant and aspiring photographer, heard of Drake's discovery and the ensuing oil rush, and moved to Titusville in October 1860. He set up a gallery, built a floating photo studio and over the next forty years compiled an exhaustive photographic record of the growth of the oil industry and its impact on the region. Mather's photographs rarely turn up in the marketplace. The photographs in the present work were mainly printed in 1895, although most are from earlier negatives. Most photographs are identified and dated in the negative. There are several "before and after" images of locations taken in the 1860's during the midst of the boom and in 1895 and largely abandoned. They are printed in sepia or albumen tones on glossy paper, the edition was undoubtedly quite small. See, Giddens, Paul H., Early Days of Oil: A Pictorial History of the Beginnings of the Industry in Pennsylvania. (Princeton: 1948).