3 volumes. viii, 344; viii, 356; viii, 347, [1] pp. With 8 aquatint plates; folding map; folding plate of sections. (8vo) 22.5x14 cm (8¾x5½"), original paper boards, paper spine labels, page edges untrimmed; in custom folding half morocco & cloth box. First English Edition.
Rare copy in the original boards of this account of an important expedition up the Platte and then across the watershed to the Arkansas, thought by Streeter to be the first published account of a journey along that route. The expedition consisted of Major Long, the commander; Captain J.R. Bell, official recorder; Thomas Say, zoologist; Edwin James, botanist, geologist, and surgeon; Titian R. Peale, assistant naturalist; Samuel Seymour, landscape painter; a corporal with six army privates, and assorted interpreters, hunters, and baggage men. James based this compilation on his own records, the brief geological notes of Major Long, and the early journals of Thomas Say. The important map, "Map of the Country drained by the Mississippi" by Stephen Long (27x50.5 cm including profiles at bottom) is discussed by Wheat at length, both the manuscript and printed versions, crediting it with largely creating the "Great American Desert" myth, and noting it as "more of a 'mother map' than was that of Pike. It was copied, even to they style of lettering of 'Great American Desert,' by numerous cartographers. Lewis and Clark's published map of 1814 and this map (and to a lesser extent that of Pike) were the progenitors of an entire class of maps of the American Transmississippi West." In some copies, three of the plates were hand-colored, but not in this one. With bookplates of Richard M. Brown. Old ink ownership signatures of J. Radcliffe to title-pages.
Provenance: Golder 9/88
References: Howes J41; Wagner-Camp 25:2; Field 948; Sabin 35683; Wheat 353 (Am. ed.)
Condition:
Some wear and discoloration to boards, joints cracking or tender; a touch of minor aging to contents, near fine overall, in rare original state.