[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. 2 engraved portrait frontispieces, 2 facsimile folding letters, 2 folding charts, and three large folding maps (one in color), loose as issued in rear pocket in Vol. IV. Original green cloth, gilt-lettered spines, uncut (hinges cracked, wear at extreme ends).
LIMITED EDITION, number 323 of 800 copies on Fine Book 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.
[With:] COUES. New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest. The Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry Fur Trader of the Northwest Company and David Thompson… New York: Francis P. Harper, 1897. 3 volumes, royal 8vo. Illustrated including 2 folding maps and one folding facsimile in rear pocket of Vol. III. Original green cloth. LIMITED EDITION, number 569 of 800 copies on Fine Book paper, from a total edition of 1000.