Abstract
The Joseph C. Ives Personal Correspondence consists of seventeen photocopied letters between United States Army Corps of Topographic Engineers Lt. Joseph C. Ives and his wife, Cora Semmes Ives, between September 1857 and June 1858. Ives was in command of a U.S. Army expedition whose mission was to explore the region of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, and to establish the limit of navigation of the Colorado River. The correspondence is largely personal in nature, however, it is a useful supplement to the official report documenting the voyage, "Report upon the Colorado River of the West; Explored in 1857-1858."
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Scope and Contents Note
The Joseph C. Ives Personal Correspondence consists of seventeen photocopied letters between United States Army Corps of Topographic Engineers Lt. Joseph C. Ives and his wife, Cora Semmes Ives, between September 1857 and June 1858. Ives was in command of a U.S. Army expedition whose mission was to explore the region of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, and to establish the limit of navigation of the Colorado River. The correspondence is largely personal in nature, however, it is a useful supplement to the official report documenting the voyage, "Report upon the Colorado River of the West; Explored in 1857-1858."
Access Note
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Materials remain in original order.
Biographical / Historical Note
Soldier and explorer Joseph Christmas Ives graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1852. In 1855, he married Cora Semmes Ives. From 1857 to 1858, Ives commanded an expedition to explore up the Colorado River to the lower end of the Grand Canyon. He then crossed the desert to Fort Defiance in Colorado. The Ives expedition produced one of the important early maps of the Grand Canyon.
Ives served in the American Civil War for the Confederate Army and was
promoted to aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel. After the war he settled in New York City, New York where he died November 12, 1868.
Preferred Citation
Joseph C. Ives Personal Correspondence, 1857-1858. MS-00079. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated by Maryellen Sadovich; accession number 39.
Processing Note
Materials were processed in 2016 by Joyce Moore and entered the data into ArchivesSpace. In 2018, as part of an archival backlog elimination project, Sarah Jones revised the collection description to bring it into compliance with current professional standards.