This evocative scene documents the arrival of a trade caravan at Santa Fe after the long journey from Independence, Missouri. Horseback riders and wagon drivers wave hats in celebration; to the right, others fire rifle shots in the air.

In the distance, the colonial Spanish settlement of Santa Fe accommodates a population of less than five thousand. The 17th-century Palace of the Governors, the oldest municipal building in the U.S., can be seen near the central plaza.

About Josiah Gregg

Commerce of the Prairies: Or the Journal of a Santa Fe Trader During Eight Expeditions Across the Great Western Prairies... is a landmark book of Western Americana. Josiah Gregg's 1844 book is acknowledged to be the primary contemporaneous authority on the Santa Fe Trail and trade, life in northern New Mexico, and the Indians of the South Plains during the 1830s and early 1840s.

The frontispiece engraving, Arrival of the Caravan at Santa Fe, has become an iconic image of the American southwest before the Mexican War and the United States' annexation of Texas and New Mexico. Gregg's included Map of the Indian Territory, Northern Texas and New Mexico Showing the Great Western Prairies was a cartographic landmark that was the most detailed and useful map of the region at the time.

Our Perfect Recreations™ are made from a complete bound set in immaculate condition and capture every detail of the original engravings.