Robert Walp • PO Box 316 • Chestertown, NY • 12817
Peak to Peak
Edited by Robert Walp
Verplanck Colvin spent 28 years surveying and mapping the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. Through his work and ideas the state formed what has become the largest state park in the country with a unique blend of public and private lands encompassing some six million acres.
Colvin was a scientist, inventor, writer and artist who used his creative energies to solve the problems presented by working in a harsh, virtually unexplored environment. He developed improved surveying tools, methods of mapping, and a collapsable lightweight boat for transporting men and materials over the lakes that dot the Adirondacks. His writings and illustrated maps show that despite the constant obstacles his survey faced he could still appreciate the beauty that surrounded him.
Peak to Peak explores Colvin and his work in a presentation of text, maps, drawings and prints. The text includes excerpts from an address by Kermit Remele, Licensed Surveyor, at the XXII Congress of the International Federation of Surveyors in Washington, DC. The book is letterpress printed on handmade paper with handmade paper endsheets that incorporate native plant fibers from cattails and milkweed.
40 copies bound by hand in quarter leather.
Two versions are available:
Version I:
The book alone -5-1/4 x 8-1/2 inches. 42 pages printed letterpress on handmade paper in Goudy Oldstyle type with Americana titles. A drawing by the printer, printed from a polymer plate, opens each of the five chapters. Also included are inkjet printed reproductions of some of Colvin's drawings and photographs printed on handmade paper. (Courtesy of The Adirondack Museum), along wih a four-fold panorama of a portion of the Adirondack High Peaks Region and an 11 x 14 inch map of the Adirondack Park both inkjet printed on handmade paper. All the prints are printed with archival pigment based inks.
$475.00 plus postage
Version II:
The book in a cloth and leather covered clamshell field case with deer bone clasps. Extra photographs and a paper gadget in a bottom compartment in the case.
$800.00 plus postage
(This work was made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program with supplemental funding from Rivendell Foundation, administered locally by the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council.)
