LEWIS, MERIWETHER, AND WILLIAM CLARK | History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, 1814

Property from the Sporting and Travel Library of Arnold “Jake” Johnson

LEWIS, MERIWETHER, AND WILLIAM CLARK

History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, 1814

2 volumes, 8vo (8¼ x 5¼ in.; 218 x 130 mm). Large folding map in facsimile, 5 maps and charts; foxing and occasional offsetting. Period acid-washed calf, boards decoratively ruled in gilt, spines gilt with black title labels, all edges speckled.

First edition of the "definitive account of the most important exploration of the North American continent" (Wagner-Camp). A cornerstone of Western Americana. The book describes the Government-backed expedition to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase undertaken from 1804 to 1806 by ascending the Missouri to its source, crossing the Rocky Mountains, and reaching the Pacific Ocean. In total, the expedition covered some eight thousand miles in slightly more than twenty-eight months. Lewis and Clark brought back the first reliable information about much of the area they traversed, made contact with the Indian inhabitants as a prelude to the expansion of the fur trade, and advanced by a quantum leap the geographical knowledge of the continent. This official account of the expedition is as much a landmark in Americana as the trip itself. The narrative has been reprinted many times and remains a perennial American bestseller. The observations in the text make it an essential work of American natural history, ethnography and science. It is the first great U.S. government expedition and the first book on the Rocky Mountain West.

REFERENCES:        

Church 1309; Field 928; Graff 2477; Grolier American 100, 30; Howes L317; Printing & the Mind of Man 272; Tweney 89, 44; Sabin 40828; Shaw & Shoemaker 31924; Streeter Sale 1777; Streeter, Americana Beginnings, 52; Wagner-Camp 13:1