Reddit reviews The Yosemite Grant 1864-1906: A Pictorial History

I completely understand where you're coming from (and I think what you're after).

I picked up this book right in the Yosemite Village Store (as I was leaving Yosemite for what I feared might be a long time). The Yosemite Grant

It's a very detailed history of the early years of the park (1864-1906) in a nice larger format book.

For other ideas, I'd browse around here are well.
Yosemite Conservancy In fact, pulling up that link just inspired me to order a copy of "They Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove", which I hadn't seen before.

If you haven't already, definitely get a copy of "The Yosemite" by John Muir. He's an incredible writer and a crazy man at times - very adventurous. There are endless variety of publications to choose from, and it's a free eBook too. All of Muir's writings are worth your time.

From another angle, I actually also found this book to be really enjoyable: Geology Underfoot in Yosemite National Park. Not for everyone, but it's a very accessible geological history, shedding light into how the landscape formed. As I hiked around the valley loop last fall it was very cool to note, as we crossed a high sort of berm that stuck out like a sore thumb, that it was in fact the terminal moraine of the glacier that carved the valley, and later acted as a damn to fill the valley, giving it its flat floor. The book gave me a better appreciation of what I was seeing within the park. (high nerd factor there though, not for everyone)

And finally, if you want to go waaaay back to some great source material, everything that is in the public domain seems to be cataloged and digitized here Yosemite Online

Enjoy!