(Franklin, Sir John) — Commander E. A. Inglefield | "A Summer Search for Sir John Franklin." Association copy

(Franklin, Sir John) — Commander E. A. Inglefield

A Summer Search for Sir John Franklin; with a Peep into the Polar Basin. With Short Notices by Professor Dickie, on the Botany, and by Dr. Sutherland, on the Meteorology and Geology. London: Thomas Harrison, 1853

8vo (221 x 140 mm). Folding engraved map, 4 lithographed plates (one chromo, one tinted, one folding), half-title; scattered spotting and soiling, some foxing and tears to plates. Publisher’s blind-embossed blue cloth, spine gilt, yellow-coated endpapers; rebacked and recased.

First edition, association copy, inscribed by Newman Smith, who is mentioned in the text. "In 1852 Inglefield commanded Lady Franklin's private steamer, Isabel, in a summer expedition to the Arctic, and looked into Smith Sound for the first time since it had been named by William Baffin. On his return he published A Summer Search for Sir John Franklin (1853), was elected FRS (2 June 1853), was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and the silver medal of the Paris Geographical Society, and was presented with a diamond snuff-box by Napoleon III" (ODNB).

This copy of A Summer Search for Sir John Franklin is inscribed on the front free endpaper "To Sir Gilbert East, Bar, Hall Place, from his affect Uncle Newman Smith, Jany 31, 1855." Newman Smith is mentioned on page 80: "Accordingly, having attained the longitude of 84 degrees, 10'W., in the latitude of 76 degrees 11' N., we bore up, and running over to the south shore, before the gale, which had commenced to blow with some violence, we examined, in the intervals of fog, every rock with our glasses, naming certain headlands as we passed, after my very kind friend Mr. Macdonald, the Master Attendant of Woolwich Dockyard (to whom I felt so much indebted for his valuable aid), Mr. Newman Smith, and my old messmate and chum, Lieut. Hardy." The large, engraved Admiralty map of the Arctic Sea bound at the end of the volumes does indeed indicate Cape Newman Smith on the north shore of Devon Island. The rear free endpaper is inscribed in a contemporary hand, "PS Considering that Inglefield was the only man who understood Navigation & that he went further into the Arctic Ocean than any ship before this might well be forwarded to Sir F Beaufort as an Extraordinary Voyage."

REFERENCES:

Abbey, Travel 642; Arctic Bibliography 7716; Sabin 34758; Stanton & Tremaine 3265

PROVENANCE:

Newman Smith, gift inscription to his nephew — Sir Gilbert East (armorial bookplate)