Lot 285
James, Edwin
Auction: 13 January 2010 at 11:00 GMT
Description
Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, performed in the years 1819, 1820... under the command of Maj. S.H. Long, of the U.S. Top. Engineers. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1823. First English edition, 3 volumes, 8vo, [viii, 344; iii-viii, 356; iii-vii, 347], 1 folding engraved map and 1 folding engraved plate ["Vertical section"] laid down on linen, 8 aquatint plates by I. Clark after S. Seymour, 3 hand-coloured, contemporary calf, spine gilt, Northern Lighthouse Board stamp at head of spines, slight offsetting to 2 coloured plates, very light spotting to a few plates, bound without half-titles to volumes 2 and 3
Footnote
Note: An account of the US government expedition under Major Stephen Long, originally named the "Yellowstone Expedition" and designed as the most ambitious expedition to date of the trans-Mississippi West. The expedition travelled up the Missouri and then followed the River Platte to its source in the Rocky Mountains before moving south to Upper Arkansas. From there the plan was to find the source of the Red River, but when this was missed the Canadian River was explored instead. The American edition was published in three volumes in Philadelphia in 1822-23. This London edition was published in the same year and differs in some respects from the American edition in both text and illustration (3 additional plates in this edition). [Sabin 35683; Wagner-Camp 25; Howes J41; Abbey, Travel 650]