3 volumes. viii, 344; viii, 356; viii, 347, [1] pp. With 8 aquatint plates, 3 of them hand-colored; folding map; folding plate of sections. (8vo) 22.5x14 cm (8¾x5½"), original paper boards, paper spine labels, page edges untrimmed. First English Edition.
Exceptional set in the original boards of this account of an important expedition up the Platte and then across the watershed to the Arkansas, with three of the aquatint plates hand-colored, which was not true of all copies. The work was thought by Streeter to be the first published account of a journey along the 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." 14-page publisher's catalogue inserted at front endpapers of Vol. I. With bookplates and address labels of George Richards to front endpapers, his light inkstamp to top page edges.
Condition:
Some wear to spine ends and corners, rubbing along the joints which are tender; a little foxing to the endpapers and untrimmed page edges, some light foxing and offset to the map; overall in fine condition, in rare state, untrimmed and in the original boards, internally fresh.