Account of the Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains,
Item #57124
JAMES, Edwin. Account of the Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Performed in the Years 1819 and '20, By Order of the Hon. J.C. Calhoun, Sec'y of War: Under the Command of Major Stephen H. Long. Philadelphia: H.C. Carey and I. Lea, 1822-1823. Three volumes (two octavo text volumes plus quarto atlas). Text: [4],5,[2],503; [6],442,xcviii pp. Atlas: two double-page engraved maps after S.H. Long by Young & Delleker; double-page plate of geological cross-sections; eight engraved plates (1 handcolored) after S. Seymour (6), T.R. Peale (1) and one unassigned, by C.G. Childs (2), Lawson (1), F. Kearney (2), W. Hay (1), Young & Delleker (1). Original grey-brown boards,expertly rebacked to style, original letterpress title label affixed to upper cover. In a brown morocco-backed box. Very good. BRADFORD 2637. GRAFF 2188. HOWES J41, "b." PILLING, PROOF-SHEETS 1958. SABIN 35682. STREETER SALE 1783. WAGNER-CAMP 25:1. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 353; II, p.80. First edition of a cornerstone work of Western Americana and American cartography, complete with the rare atlas. Originally named the "Yellowstone Expedition," the U.S. government expedition under Major Stephen Long was the most ambitious exploration of the trans-Mississippi West following those of Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike. 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. Edwin James was the botanist, geologist, and surgeon for the expedition and "based his compilation upon his own records, the brief geological notes of Major Long, and the early journals of Thomas Say [who served as the expedition's zoologist]" (Wagner-Camp). Significantly, Long's expedition was the first official U.S. expedition to be accompanied by artists (namely Titian Peale and Samuel Seymour), and the illustrations in the atlas are therefore an important early visual record of the area. The plates depict Oto Indians, views of the Plains, buffalo, etc. Cartographically, the atlas contains the first maps to provide detail of the Central Plains. Upon returning to Washington from the expedition, Long drafted a large manuscript map of the West (now in the Nat.
Price: $28,500.00