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 theRiver Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed in the years 1804–5–6. By Order of the Government of the United States. Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep; and Abm. H. Inskeep, New York (J. Maxwell, Printer), 1814

2 volumes, 8vo in half-sheets (8 1/4 x 5 in.; 210 x 128 mm). Large folding engraved map after Clark by S. Harrison, neatly dissected into 12 sections and mounted on linen), 5 engraved maps and plans; folding map lightly foxed with a closed tear at right margin, usual light browning and foxing to text and other plates. Contemporary tree calf, covers with simple gilt-roll frame, marbled endpapers, plain edges; beautifully rebacked to style. Half black morocco folding-case.

George R. Ford (signatured, dated 1818, at head of both title-pages). Acquisition: William Reese

Church 1309; Field, Indian Bibliography 928; Graff 2477; Grolier/American 30; Printing and the Mind of Man 272; Sowerby, Library of Thomas Jefferson 4168; Schwartz & Ehrenberg, Mapping of America, pp. 227–28; Streeter 3:1777; Wagner-Camp 13:1

First edition of "the definitive account of the most important exploration of the North American Continent" (Wagner-Camp). The Lewis and Clark expedition was funded by Congress for the purpose of establishing trading ties with the Indians of the western region. While this goal was accomplished, the explorers also greatly expanded the geographical knowledge of the West and, perhaps most important, demonstrated the feasibility of transcontinental travel.

The expedition made its way from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back from spring 1804 through the fall of 1806. A myriad of circumstances—including Lewis's mysterious death—conspired to delay the publication of the official narrative of their travels for eight years, during which interval several unofficial and inaccurate accounts were published. The present edition was finally brought together from Lewis and Clark's journals by Paul Allen; Thomas Jefferson (who purchased twelve sets of the History of the Expedition) supplied a prefatory life of Lewis. Many copies were evidently issued without the large map tracing Lewis and Clark's 8,000-mile trek, which is here preserved in a fine impression.

Clark's map of the region west of the Great Lakes was vastly superior to any previous western map: "The narrow single chain of mountains that characterized many earlier maps was replaced by a complex system of ranges, and the courses of the Missouri and Snake rivers were shown for the first time in their approximately correct position" (Schwartz & Ehrenberg). In 2000, the American Philosophical Society, one of the great supporters of the expedition, commented on the overall significance of Clark's map: "the 1814 Map destroyed hopes for a practical continental Northwest Passage; provided a new and more accurate conception of western terrain hinting at a number of physiographic American Wests; and due to Nicolas Biddle's interest in ethnology and William Clark's first hand knowledge of the western tribes, the map included important information gleaned from the journals about native peoples." The five smaller maps and plans depict specific stretches of the Missouri and Columbia rivers. A very handsome set.