A 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 & 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 vegetal and animal productions. By Patrick Gass, one of the persons employed in the expedition. With geographical and explanatory notes by the publisher
Pittsburgh: Zadok Cramer for David M’Keehan, 1807. First edition.
Duodecimo in 6s (6 7/16” x 4 3/16”, 164mm x 106mm): A-X6 Y6(–Y6 blank) [$2 signed first and third]. 131 leaves, pp. i-iii (title, copyright, preface) iv-viii [3] (fly-title, blank, text) 12-262.
Bound in contemporary boards backed in sheep. Author and title gilt to the spine. Presented in a blue cloth clam-shell box.
Rubbed and worn, with some losses at the fore-corners. A star incised at the spine. Internally tanned, with scattered soiling. Without free end-papers. A repaired transverse tear to M2, with a filled loss at the lower fore (not affecting the text). Signed by Samuel McGlathery Jr. five times: title-page (“…his Book/ 1816–”), p. 107 (“…U.S. Navy—/1824.”), pp. 142-143 (“…U.S. Navy Hospital | stuard, Philadelphia/1823 & 4—”), p. 201 and the rear paste-down (preceded by a quatrain,[1] signed “Samuel McGlathery/A. 1816”).
Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) and William Clark (1770–1838), both captains in the army (Clark in the Illinois militia; Lewis was Thomas Jefferson’s private secretary), were commissioned by Jefferson to co-command the Corps of Discovery, a unit whose mission was the exploration of the newly purchased Louisiana Territory, with an ultimate view to reaching to the Pacific. In addition to their military corps, they were accompanied by civilians including Sacajawea, who served as an interpreter more often than as a guide, but also, crucially, “a token of peace” as “a woman with a party of men.” They set off in 1804 and returned to St. Louis in 1806 (accompanied all the way by the Newfoundland dog Seaman), reporting for the first time about the Pacific Northwest; indeed their exploration of Oregon Country was used as the basis for its annexation in 1819 in the Adams-Onís Treaty.
Lewis and Clark’s official account was published in 1814, leaving a gap of some eight years that was filled first by the present work, written by a volunteer private on the expedition, Patrick Gass (1771–1870). His Journal of the Voyages was the first full account published by a member of the Corps of Discovery, and brought to the attention the American public the possibilities that lay west of the Mississippi River. Gass was promoted to the rank of sergeant during the expedition, and was commended by Lewis, praising “the ample support which he gave me, under every difficulty; the manly firmness which he evinced on every necessary occasion; and the fortitude with which he bore the fatigues and painful sufferings incident to that long voyage.” The journal provides the fine detail — hunting animals and making camp — as well as the broad historical arcs of this most storied of American explorations. Streeter names it “one of the essential books for an Americana collection.” Republished in London the following year and then in Philadelphia in 1810, 1811 and 1812, this first edition is distinguished by its printing in Pittsburgh — appropriately western-facing — by Zadok Cramer, himself an explorer along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
The owner of the volume was Samuel McGlathery Jr. (1788–1857), born in Mifflin Co. in central Pennsylvania but lived most of his life in Blair Co., whose largest city is Altoona. Per his marking throughout the book, he served in the U.S. Navy, perhaps as a hospital corpsman (HM) in the early 1820’s. The poem in his hand at the rear paste-down suggests a creative spirit.
Graff 1516; Howes G 77 (“b”); Sabin 26741; Streeter V.3120; Wagner-Camp 6:1.
[1] Finger who ever thou art,
I speak to the unknown,
Think with an honest heart.
Each one should have his own.
Item #JLR0761
Price: $15,000