This appears to be the second catalogue of a U.S. exhibition of rare books on any scientific subject, following John Shaw Billing's catalogue of his exhibition of books from the Army Medical Library at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1899. (See GM 13587.) Bolton's briefly annotated catalogue records a selection of 110 highlights from what was presumably Bolton's much larger private library. For Bolton's "select" bibliography of chemistry and the history of chemistry, containing 12,031 entries, see No. 11425.

Digital facsimile of Bolton's 1891 exhibition catalogue from historyofscience.com at this link.

Bolton, a chemist, was the earliest American bibliographer of chemistry. His first edition, which atempted to list "the principal books on chemistry published in Europe and America from the rise of the literature to the close of the year 1892," included 12,031 titles. A second edition, covering the literature to 1904, and completed posthumously, listed over 14,000 titles.

Digital facsimile of the 1893 edition from Google Books at this link.

Includes one of the most comprehensive listings of scientific periodicals, including medical, up to the time of publication. The chronological tables show the runs of the various journals within a time frame. There are indices to subjects covered and titles. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.