[BLANE, William N. (1800-1825)]. An Excursion through the U...

8vo. 2 folding maps with hand-outlining in color including frontispiece map of the United States by John Melish, folding table (closed tear to frontispiece at gutter, some offsetting). Full contemporary calf, spine gilt (extremities rubbed, 3” loss to spine near head, front joint splitting with separation, front free endpapers sprung).

FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR’S UNCLE, SIR GILBERT BLANE (1749-1834). Blane was an established physician in the Royal Navy, improving conditions onboard and the health of the sailors by improving their diet and enforcing proper sanitary precautions. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1784 and later appointed as Commissioner on the Sick and Wounded Board of Admiralty. “The account is one of the least opinionated of any written by English visitors for a decade or more, and may be compared in this respect to Hodgson. Although exhibiting a definite antislavery bias, Blane was open-minded on most matters. He adjusted himself to frontier inconveniences, and showed an awareness of rapidly improving conditions in the newer population areas. He criticized his own countrymen for their prejudiced and unfair accounts of American life, but noted evidence of a changing attitude. He concluded that the frontier was not a place where immigrant Englishmen would be happier, but recommended any part of America for the poor Irish.” Clark II:184; Howes B521; Sabin 5872.