FRÉMONT, John Charles, Brevet Captain (1813–1890). Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, and to Oregon and North Carolina in the Years 1843–’44. Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1845.
8vo. 22 lithograph plates, 5 maps; 3 of them folding, INCLUDING THE LARGE FOLDING MAP (787 x 1308 mm). (Some browning or offsetting to plates, large map is on old linen and housed separately in folding card box, some old repairs at folds). Original embossed brown cloth, gilt–lettered spine (recased with renewed endpapers, few spots of worming near front joint repaired, front hinge starting). Provenance: Peel Park Library (book label on map verso) and Royal Museum and Library (blindstamps on map recto) – collectively known today as the Salford Museum and Art Gallery – the country’s first free public lending library in 1850; Hackney Public Library Special Collections (rubberstamp on map verso).
FIRST EDITION, SENATE ISSUE of “one of the single most important pieces of Western Americana… [it] had a seminal effect on the routes frequented in the great period of emigration” (Reese). Fremont’s report of his second expedition which explored the overland trails to Oregon and California was of great interest to an expanding nation and was more widely read than any other account of the West at the time. His greatest scientific contribution was the large folding map included in this text, serving as the basis for many later maps and is the most correct map of the Trans–Mississippi West published up to this time. Reese, Best of the West 86; Graff 1436; Howes F–370; Sabin 25845; Streeter Sale 3131; Wagner–Camp 115:1; Wheat, Gold Regions 3266; Wheat, Transmississippi West 495; Zamarano 80, no. 39.