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Details
CHARLES WILKES (1798-1877)
Narrative of the United States exploring Expedition. During the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1845. 5 vols text and atlas vol, large 8° (280 x 187mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece in vols I and II, 63 engraved plates, 47 engraved vignettes, with woodcuts throughout, 9 double-page engraved maps, half-titles; atlas with title, contents leaf and 5 folding maps, one of these hand-coloured (small hole at fold of coloured map). Original publisher's pictorial black cloth gilt, boards with blind-stamped border enclosing central design of an eagle stamped in gilt, spine tooled in blind and gilt and lettered in gilt (slight wear to bottom edges).
FIRST TRADE EDITION, UNUSUALLY WELL PRESERVED. The first official American scientific expedition by sea, approved by Congress in 1836. Only through Wilkes' efforts, however, did it finally sail in 1838 with five poorly equipped ships, 83 officers and 342 men. It ranks as one the great voyages to the Southern Ocean, alongside those of Dumont d'Urville and James Clark Ross. Once around Cape Horn, Wilkes surveyed 1,600 miles of South American coastline, discovered the Shackleton Ice Shelf, as well as Wilkes Land in present-day Australian Antarctic Territory, and claimed to be the first to use the term 'Antarctic Continent'. Meanwhile his ship's tender, the Peacock, made a remarkable voyage South reaching latitude 700. His survey of Pacific islands resulted in over 200 new charts for 280 islands, most notably in Hawaii, Fiji, and the Philippines, only a few of which were later proved inaccurate. The N.W. American coast was as fully charted from California to Puget Sound while a separate party blazed a new trail overland from the Columbia River to San Francisco and completed the first map of this route. Hill 1867; Forbes 1574; Howes W414; Howgego II, W33. (6)
Narrative of the United States exploring Expedition. During the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1845. 5 vols text and atlas vol, large 8° (280 x 187mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece in vols I and II, 63 engraved plates, 47 engraved vignettes, with woodcuts throughout, 9 double-page engraved maps, half-titles; atlas with title, contents leaf and 5 folding maps, one of these hand-coloured (small hole at fold of coloured map). Original publisher's pictorial black cloth gilt, boards with blind-stamped border enclosing central design of an eagle stamped in gilt, spine tooled in blind and gilt and lettered in gilt (slight wear to bottom edges).
FIRST TRADE EDITION, UNUSUALLY WELL PRESERVED. The first official American scientific expedition by sea, approved by Congress in 1836. Only through Wilkes' efforts, however, did it finally sail in 1838 with five poorly equipped ships, 83 officers and 342 men. It ranks as one the great voyages to the Southern Ocean, alongside those of Dumont d'Urville and James Clark Ross. Once around Cape Horn, Wilkes surveyed 1,600 miles of South American coastline, discovered the Shackleton Ice Shelf, as well as Wilkes Land in present-day Australian Antarctic Territory, and claimed to be the first to use the term 'Antarctic Continent'. Meanwhile his ship's tender, the Peacock, made a remarkable voyage South reaching latitude 700. His survey of Pacific islands resulted in over 200 new charts for 280 islands, most notably in Hawaii, Fiji, and the Philippines, only a few of which were later proved inaccurate. The N.W. American coast was as fully charted from California to Puget Sound while a separate party blazed a new trail overland from the Columbia River to San Francisco and completed the first map of this route. Hill 1867; Forbes 1574; Howes W414; Howgego II, W33. (6)