Lewis, Meriwether and William Clark

2 volumes, 8vo (8 1/4 x 5 in.; 210 x 128 mm). Large folding engraved map after Clark by S. Harrison, 5 engraved maps and plans; folding map lightly foxed with portion of upper left supplied in facsimile, title of  first volume with mild spotting, second volume title with closed repaired tear, some intermittent staining. Contemporary marbled boards with gilt-ruled calf spines; some rubbing and scuffing, morocco labels faded. Each volume in modern half morocco folding case.

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."