Life of Alexander von Humboldt (In Two Volumes)

This may be the First English Edition (NAP, 1873 on the title page, the verso of the title page is blank, the first English edition was published in 1873). On the second front end paper there is a signature that appears to be of a Sullivan Dorr, although he would have been dead at the time (read on). Mr. Dorr was an early 19th century shipping magnate involved in the China Trade. He married a woman named Lydia Allen. Sullivan Dorr was the father of Thomas Wilson Dorr, the governor who led Dorr's Rebellion in 1842 a short-lived armed uprising in Rhode Island aimed that expanding democracy in the state. Sullivan also had a son named Sullivan Dorr Jr. He lived between the years 1813-1884, so it would have to be his signature on these volumes which were published in 1873. Sullivan Dorr, Sr. served as a Brown University trustee between 1813 and 1858, the year of his death. In 1809 he built what is now called the Sullivan Dorr House or Mansion in Providence, Rhode Island. It was designed by John Holden Greene and erected on the house lot and original burial site of Providence's founder, Roger Williams. The building still remains on the East Side of Providence on Benefit Street. Both volumes have a bookplate neatly attached to their front inside covers. The printed name on the bookplate is James Walter Wilson. I'm guessing that he was the same James Walter Wilson who was the Chairman of the Department of Biology at Brown University from 1945 until 1960, but that's only a guess based the connection to Brown University. Wilson's service to the profession was not limited to Brown University. He was a member of the U.S. Public Health Services National Advisory Council on Health Research Facilities, the National Advisory Cancer Council, and a consultant to the Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and president of the American Society of Zoologists. His reputation as an outstanding biologist extended into the White House: President John F. Kennedy invited him to present at the President's Conference on Heart Disease and Cancer in 1961. He retired in 1966 and died in 1969. You can see the covers of the two volumes in the photos. The original purple color is toned to blue along the edges of the volumes and a dark blue on the spines. The gilt lettering on the spines is still fairly bright. You can see the losses at the top and bottom edges of the spines of both volumes. Volume II also has a vertical scratch on it spine. The cover edges are in very good shape, no rubbing. The cover corners all have very small spots of rubbing. As you can see, the covers are mostly quite clean. The page edges are deckled or rough-cut. They did a very good job. Both volumes are square and their spines are straight. The binding of both volumes is quite solid. I didn't see any instances of cracks or spaces between any facing pages or between the covers and any of the pages. The inside covers and pacing end papers are brown. In Volume I a very tiny bit of the paper at the top left corner of the front inside cover and top right corner of the front end paper came off. I have scrolled through the pages of both volumes a number of times. I didn't find any conspicuous soiling. I didn't see any foxing on any the text pages. The pages are somewhat toned, but uniformly. There is a little bit of foxing on the white margins of the frontispieces of both volumes (von Humboldt at 26 and 44, major change in hairstyle). There is a tissue guard protecting each frontispiece. There is a very light crease off the top corner of a good number of pages in Volume I. I saw very little creasing in Volume II, which has third portrait of the subject at age 80. It is also protected by a tissue guard. There are no markings in the book. There are no attachments other than the aforementioned bookplates. And the two signatures of Mr. Dorr represent the only writing to be found anywhere.…