JAMES, EDWIN | Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1823

Property from the Sporting and Travel Library of Arnold "Jake" Johnson

JAMES, EDWIN

 Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1823

3 volumes, 8vo (8 7/8 x 5 5/8 in.; 224 x 142 mm). Three frontispieces (two hand colored), five plates by J. Clark after S. Seymour (one colored), one folding map and one folding chart; map backed with a few stains, lacks half titles to first volume, old library stamp on plate versos, but a clean, unfoxed set. Contemporary calf, nicely rebacked.

First London edition, published in the same year as its Philadelphia counterpart, containing a few additions to the text and three new plates. 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 reality was a much-reduced party which James accompanied as botanist and geologist. The expedition traveled up the Missouri and then followed the 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 this being missed, the Canadian River was explored instead.

REFERENCE:

Abbey 'Travel' 650; Howes J-41; Sabin 35683; Wagner-Camp 25