LEWIS, Meriwether (1774-1809); and William CLARK (1770-1838)
History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis & Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed During the Years 1804-5-6. By order of the Government of the United States. Prepared for the press by Paul Allen, Esquire. In two volumes.
“Definitive account of the most important exploration of the north American continent” (Wagner-Camp), in original publishers boards
Publication details:
Philadelphia & New York, Published by Bradford and Inskeef; and Abm: H. Inskeep, 1814.
Information:
First edition. 2 volumes, octavo (215 by 130mm). Engraved folding map of the route, 5 engraved plates; original publisher’s cream printed boards, uncut; an extraordinary survival in spite of some mostly marginal spotting, a few quires browned, the map with some light spotting strengthened at left margin with tissue and with tiny fold-tear in lower margin; backstrip of vol. I worn, that of vol. II gone, covers scuffed and rubbed, edges torn, upper hinge of vol. II weak. 20831_167 (detail of Donell’s 1812 signature)
Literature:
Carter et al, 272; Church, 1309; Field, 928;
Graff, 2477; Grolier, 30; Howes, L317;
Sabin, 40828; Shaw and Shoemaker, 31924;
Streeter, 1777; Streeter [Beginnings], 52;
Wagner, Camp, and Becker, 13:1.
Provenance:
1. Early owner’s notes on pages xv, 58, 150-151, 173, arithmetic calculations in pencil on rear flyleaf of volume I;
2. With the ownership inscription of John R. Donnells, dated 1812 on the inside of the front cover of volume I, and signed on the front free endpaper of volumes I and II; bookplates removed from the inside front covers.
Notes:
First edition of the “definitive account of the most important exploration of the North American continent” (Wagner-Camp). A cornerstone of Western Americana.
The expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out from St. Louis in May 1804. Its intention was to explore and map the Northwest of America, study the flora and fauna, make contact with the Indian tribes, and in the words of President Jefferson, who commissioned the expedition, to ascertain whether there was a “direct and practicable water communication across the continent, for the purpose of commerce with Asia”. The expedition would cover some eight thousand miles in just over twenty-eight months and would lead them down the Missouri to its source, across the Rocky Mountains, and finally tracing the Columbia river to its mouth on the Pacific coast.
The expedition was a great success, with a huge leap forward in the understanding of the Northwest of America as a result, and would lead eventually to the United States’ great movement west. However, the official publication of their endeavours was a somewhat more laboured process, with delays in collating the information, the death of Lewis in 1809, and the bankruptcy of the publishers C. & A. Conrad & Co., just a few of the stumbling blocks. The work was eventually published in 1814, some ten years after the pair had set off from St Louis.
The present example contains the large folding map titled ‘Map of Lewis and Clark’s Track Across the Western Portion of North America’. It is an accurate copy of Clark’s manuscript, and “the best cartographic representation of the entire northwestern quadrant of what is now the United States” (Cohen).
