[First American edition of Patrick Gass's Lewis and Clark journal to include a map.] Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery, Under the Command of Capt. Lewis and Capt. Clarke of the Army of the United States, From the Mouth of the River Missouri Through the Interior Parts of North America to the Pacific Ocean, During the Years 1804, 1805, and 1806. Containing An authentic relation of the most interesting transactions during the expedition; a description of the country; and an account of its inhabitants, soil, climate, curiosities, and vegetable and animal productions. By Patrick Gass, One of the persons employed in the expedition. With Geographical and Explanatory Notes. Fourth Edition--With Six Engravings.

Patrick Gass / Meriwether Lewis / William Clark

Published by Patrick Gass / Meriwether Lewis / William Clark, 1812

About this Item

First Edition of Patrick Gass's Lewis and Clark Narrative Issued with a Folding Map."Earliest full first-hand narrative of the Lewis and Clark expedition." - Howes.Sergeant Patrick Gass served as a key member of the Le. 12mo. Contemporary full calf with gilt leather spine label. 262 pages plus folding engraved map and six plates. Complete, including preliminary leaf headed "Review of this Work." Binding scuffed rubbed at edges and spine. Folding map with tide mark to upper right corner and creasing along folds, with a bit of foxing, expertly reinforced on verso with Japanese tissue along folds and upper margin (no loss). Text leaves toned with occasional light spotting and foxing. Early ink manuscript inscription of an early 19th-century lending library on front free endpaper: "The Property of Union Library No. 90"; no other library markings. First Edition of Patrick Gass's Lewis and Clark Narrative Issued with a Folding Map."Earliest full first-hand narrative of the Lewis and Clark expedition." - Howes.Sergeant Patrick Gass served as a key member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's Corps of Discovery from 1804 to 1806. His journal, originally published in Pittsburgh in 1807, holds historical primacy as the earliest published firsthand account of the epic journey to the Pacific Ocean, appearing seven years prior to the official 1814 Lewis and Clark narrative. Philadelphia publisher Mathew Carey acquired the publication rights to Gass's manuscript and issued subsequent printings in 1810, 1811, and 1812. This 1812 fourth edition, issued by Carey, represents a critical bibliographic milestone, being the very first printing of Gass's narrative to feature a folding map of the Trans-Mississippi West.The folding copperplate map, simply titled LOUISIANA., provides a graphic overview of North America from the Mississippi River west to the Pacific Ocean. It delineates the Missouri River system, the Rocky Mountain range, and the Pacific Northwest coast, extending south into Spanish Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. Alongside the cartography, this edition contains six full-page woodcut engravings illustrating memorable events from the expedition, including the frontispiece depicting a canoe striking a tree snag in turbulent waters and a plate at page 95 illustrating Captain William Clark and his men hunting grizzly bears in the Missouri River valley.Carey derived the map's copperplate from an engraving produced by Francis Shallus for the 1805 edition of Carey's American Pocket Atlas. That cartography was synthesized from Aaron Arrowsmith and Samuel Lewis's landmark 1804 map of Louisiana, which had incorporated Spanish trader Antoine Soulard's 1795 manuscript charting of the Upper Missouri River. Reissued here without Shallus's signature, the map delivered the American public one of its earliest accessible cartographic depictions of the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and the transcontinental route traversed by the Corps of Discovery. Erickson, echoing Wheat, suggested that the map could have been "a remainder sheet from the 1805 Carey's American Pocket Atlas.Issued in 1812, the same year Louisiana was admitted to the Union as the eighteenth state, this edition provided American readers with a comprehensive visual and narrative record of the young republic's expanded western frontier.Complete examples in period bindings with the folding map and the full complement of six plates are exceptionally desirable examples of early Western Americana.

Seller Inventory # 127279

Bibliographic Details

• Title: [First American edition of Patrick Gass's Lewis and Clark journal to include a map.] Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery, Under the Command of Capt. Lewis and Capt. Clarke of the Army of the United States, From the Mouth of the River Missouri Through the Interior Parts of North America to the Pacific Ocean, During the Years 1804, 1805, and 1806. Containing An authentic relation of the most interesting transactions during the expedition; a description of the country; and ...
• Publisher: Patrick Gass / Meriwether Lewis / William Clark
• Publication Date: 1812
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: good
• Book Type: Book
• Seller catalogs:
  • Antique Maps