Proof-sheets of a Bibliography of North American Indian Languages, proof pages, approximately 1885

James Constantine Pilling was a Congressional stenographer-transcriptionist and a pioneering ethnologist chiefly known for compiling a series of extensive bibliographies of the cultures, mythologies and languages of the North and Central American aboriginal peoples. He was born in Washington, D.C., 16 November 1846. He joined the geological survey of Rocky Mountains under John W. Powell, 1875; collected ethnological material concerning Native American, 1875-1889; was chief clerk, U.S. Ethnological Bureau, 1889-1895. He died in Olney, Md., 26 July 1895.

The "Proof-sheets of a Bibliography of North American Indian Languages" was published in a limited run of 100 copies in 1885. Prior to that there were only three copies of the bound actual pre-publication proofs, with hand-written notes and corrections. These belonged to Pilling, Wilburforce Eames (sometimes known as the 'Dean of American bibliographers'), and Joaquín García Icazbalceta. This is Eames' working copy according to the note by W. S. Reese, Nov. 12, 1977.