Condition. The book is in Very Good condition. There is an armorial bookplate (Susan E.P. Forbes) on the front pastedown. Both front and back inner hinges are cracked. The out hinges are solid and the binding remains strong. The corners are bumped and lightly scraped. There is a ding at the top right edge of the front board and the bottom right corner a one cm tear. The head and foot of the spine are soft and lightly frayed. The gilt decoration and lettering is bright.

Armorial Bookplate (Forbes) and
Broken Internal Hinges (front and back)

 
Todd, Mabel Loomis:
Corona and Coronet Being a Narrative of the Amherst Eclipse Expedition to Japan, In Mr. James's Schooner-Yacht Coronet, to Observe the Sun's Total Obscuration 9 August, 1896, by Mabel Loomis Todd, Author of "Total Eclipses of the Sun," etc., etc. With Illustrations, Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, electrotyped and printed by H.O. Houghton and Co., copyright 1898, stated "Second Impression," 1899, 8vo, blindstamped green cloth (both boards) with gilt lettering and decoration on front board and spine, top edge gilt, 34 black and white plates (includes 2 maps, one of which spans two facing pages), 383 pp. This is a travel book about the scientific expedition to Hokkaido, Japan for the purpose of observing a total solar eclipse on August 9, 1896. The expedition team was headed by Professor David P. Todd. The author is his wife, Mabel Loomis Todd. The majority of the travel was aboard the Schooner-Yacht Coronet. The expedition departed California in April of 1896 bound for Japan with a stop enroute in Hawaii. There is a significant account of the Hawaiian Islands. While in Hawaii the author records a chance and poignant account of meeting the noted female actor, lecturer, journalist for several newspapers and periodicals and writer of travel books and plays, Miss. Kate Field. Miss Field, who was then fatally ill with pneumonia, came about her steamer at Kaawaloa. She was destined for Honolulu for medical care. Todd spend much time with Field on this voyage and, in fact, records what she believed to be her (Field's) last spoken words. The steamer reached Honolulu on May 15 and the next day Field died. The book relates extensive travel accounts within Japan which include Yokohama, Tokyo, Gifu, Kyoto, the Inland Sea and Hokkaido. Northern Hokkaido was the mission destination and the eclipse observation station was established in Northern Hokkaido at Esashi, Katami. A significant portion of the book and illustrations is devoted to the Ainu of Hokkaido. K. (Kazumasa) Ogawa, the prominent Japanese photographer and publisher, is noted to have joined the expedition team at Esahi. The scientific aspects of the expedition are only a small portion of the book accounting for approximately 10 pages of the book. This is a travel book rather than scientific account of the expedition.

The following references to Kazumasa Ogawa, the expedition photographer, are found in the book:

Page viii - "...ease of communication in remote localities would not have been attainable; and to Professor Burton and Mr. Ogawa warm thanks are due for fine views of...."

Page 170 - "The photographer, Mr. Ogawa (also our photographer during the former Japan eclipse at Shirakawa in 1887), was to follow within a few days ...."

Page 346 - "Besides the above party the photographer Ogawa also followed taking two of his men."

Index. - Referencing page viii and page 170 (not page 346 however) under K. Ogawa.

An article on the scientific aspects of the expedition was published by Professor Todd in The Outlook in 1897. To see that article, click here.

 
Title Page

 
Frontispiece

Examples of Plates

CONTENTS
              
INTRODUCTORY                                    i~xiii
DEEP-SEA YACHTING BY A.C. JAMES          xxiii~xxxviii
I.      THE CORONET                                  1
II.     PREPARATION                                  8
III.    OVERLAND                                    14
IV.     SAUSALITO                                   24
V.      FIFTEEN DAYS AT SEA                         30
VI.     LIFE IN HONOLULU                            42
VII.    HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES                          58
VIII.   A HAWAIIAN JOURNEY                          68
IX.     KILAUEA                                     78
X.      A POI LUNCHEON                              88
XI.     WITH KATE FIELD                             97
XII.    A MID-PACIFIC COLLEGE                      104
XIII.   THE LEPERS OF MOLOKAI                      111
XIV.    FOUR WEEKS AT SEA                          125
XV.     JAPAN REVISITED                            139
XVI.    DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION                155
XVII.   IN FAMILIAR HAUNTS                         172
XVIII.  SOUTHWARD                                  181
XIX.    GlFU AND THE CORMORANT FISHING             l88
XX.     KYOTO                                      194
XXI.    KARA                                       209
XXII.   YACHTING IN THE INLAND SEA                 216
XXIII.  EXPEDITION EXPERIENCES                     229
XXIV.   THE TIDAL WAVE                             241
XXV.    IN PURSUIT OF A SHADOW                     254
XXVI.   STILL PURSUING                             264
XXVII.  ESASHI IN KlTAMI                           272
XXVIII. IN AINU LAND                               292
XXIX.   THE ECLIPSE                                318
XXX.    A NATIVE CELEBRATION                       327
XXXI.   VOYAGE ON A FRENCH CRUISER                 336
XXXII.  HOMEWARD BOUND                             343
XXXIII. BACK TO AN ARIZONA COPPER MINE             357
INDEX                                          377~383


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MR. JAMES'S SCHOONER YACHT CORONET        Frontispiece
EXPEDITION HEADQUARTERS AT ESASHI . .        Facing 10
THE ROTARY SNOW-PLOUGH AT WELLINGTON                20
EXPEDITION WORK ON BOARD                            36
RESIDENCE OF PRESIDENT DOLE IN HONOLULU             50
HAWAIIAN VILLAGE LANDING-PLACE                      64
SULPHUR BLOW-HOLE IN THE CRATER OF KILAUEA          80
KATE FIELD                                          98
COTTAGE IN DR. MCGREW'S GROUNDS WHERE
  MISS FIELD DIED                                  102
BOKI, RULER OF OAHU IN 1820, AND LILIHA HIS WIFE   104
CAPTAIN AND OWNER OF THE CORONET                   134
MAP OF JAPAN SHOWING TRACK OF TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE  158
THE CORONET DRESSED FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY,
  YOKOHAMA HARBOR, THE OLYMPIA AT THE RIGHT        180
A "FLOAT" IN MATSURI PROCESSION AT KYOTO           206
STONE LANTERNS AND CRYPTOMERIAS AT NARA            212
TEMPLE AT NARA                                     214
VIEW ON THE RAILWAY NEAR MORIOKA                   230
LANDING THE EMPEROR'S PORTRAIT AT ESASHI           238
THE GREAT TIDAL WAVE AS PORTRAYED IN A NATIVE
  MAGAZINE                                         248
AINU COUPLE, THE WOMAN WEARING CEREMONIAL BEADS    260
A TYPICAL AINU                                     268
THE ELECTRIC COMMUTATOR                            278
JAPANESE CARPENTER MAKING PLATE-HOLDERS AT
  ECLIPSE STATION                                  280
FANCIFUL LAMP-POST AND NATIVE INN AT ESASHI        282
AINU HOLDING MUSTACHE-LIFTER, ABOUT TO DRINK SAKE  290
OLD AINU CHIEFTAIN                                 300
AINU WOMAN CARRYING CHILD AND BURDEN               304
ARTICLES GATHERED IN AINU HOUSES                   312
LIGHTHOUSE ON THE BEACH AT ESASHI (from a
  Drawing by Mr. Thompson)                         322
EXPEDITION MEMBERS, AND OLD SCHOOLHOUSE,
  AFTER THE ECLIPSE                                324
A "HAIRY AINU"                                     340
ROUTE OF THE EXPEDITION, AND CORONET'S COURSE      354
AINU WOMAN WEAVING ELM-FIBRE INTO CLOTH            360
ARTICLES OF AINU MANUFACTURE                       368

34 black and white plates (includes 2 maps, one of which
spans two facing pages)