[LEWIS & CLARK EXPEDITION]. COUES, Elliott (1842–1899), editor. History of the Expedition Under the Command of Lewis and Clark to Sources of the Missouri River, thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean performed during the Years 1804–5–6–, by Order of the Government of the United States. New York: Francis P. Harper, 1893.
4 volumes, royal 8vo. (End pocket in Vol. IV separated at edges, rear free endpaper torn away). 2 engraved portrait frontispieces on india paper, 2 facsimile folding letters, folding charts, and three large folding maps (one in color), loose as issued in rear pocket in Vol. IV. Original cloth–backed boards, printed paper spine labels, uncut (spines gently sunned, some chipping to Vol. IV label, some dust smudging to cloth, corners rubbed). Provenance: Frank W. Stanley (book label).
LIMITED EDITION, number 135 of 200 large–paper copies on hand–made paper, from a total edition of 1000. “[Coues’] edition of 1893 ranks second in importance only to the original journals. His lengthy annotations, based on first–hand knowledge of the territory, are highly informative, and his bibliographical essay is a major contribution” (Wagner–Camp). This was also the first of a series of landmark publications by Harper on western exploration, and the first editing project of the prolific Coues which Howes notes as being the “most scholarly” of all the editions of Lewis and Clark. Graff 2484; Howes L317; Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 5b.2; Wagner–Camp 13:7.