ID 1119107
Lot 124 | An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi
Estimate value
$ 8 000 – 12 000
Zebulon Pike, 1810
PIKE, Zebulon Montgomery (1779-1813). An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi, and through the Western Parts of Louisiana to the Sources of the Arkansaw, Kans, La Platte, and Pierre Jaun Rivers; Performed by order of the Government of the United States During the Years 1805, 1806, and 1807. Philadelphia: John Binns for C.&A. Conrad; Petersburgh: Somervell & Conrad; Norfolk: Bonsal, Conrad & Co.; and Baltimore: Fielding Lucas, Jr., 1810.
The first edition of the first government exploration of the Southwest, with the maps and tables bound with the text in a single volume (occasionally issued separately in an Atlas). In 1806 Pike led an expedition to the southwestern borders of the Louisiana Purchase. He had orders to explore the Arkansas and Red Rivers, and to obtain information about nearby Spanish territory. It was on this trip that he tried, unsuccessfully, to climb the mountain peak later named for him. His party headed south from Colorado, ending up in what is now northern New Mexico, where they were stopped by Spanish officials and charged with illegal entry into Spanish-held territory. All of Pike's maps, notes and papers became the property of the Spanish, with the party escorted through Santa Fe, across Texas, and released on the Spanish-American border in Louisiana. Pike's published account of this last expedition, with information about the weakness of Spanish authority in Santa Fe and the profitability of trading with Mexico, stirred businessmen and politicians into expanding to Texas. He also helped establish the myth of the "Great American Desert" which slowed growth into the Great Plains. Field 1217; Graff 3290; Howes P-373 ("b"); Jenkins Basic Texas Books 163; Sabin 62836; Streeter Texas 1047; Wagner-Camp-Becker 9:1; Wheat Mapping the Transmississippi West 297-299.
Octavo (230 x 133 mm). (Foxing and browning, scattered paper repairs, one letter in facsimile on p.151, scattered pencil notes "Copy B.") Frontispiece portrait, three folding tables and six maps, five of which are folding (folding tables worn and backed with tissue, offsetting to maps). Contemporary sheep (rebacked with old spine laid down). Provenance: Charles T. Thomas of "Midland Farm," Alexander, Arkansas (ownership inscription on portrait verso).
Artist: | Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779 - 1813) |
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Auction house category: | Printed books |
Artist: | Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779 - 1813) |
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Auction house category: | Printed books |
Address of auction |
CHRISTIE'S 20 Rockefeller Plaza 10020 New York USA | ||||||||||||||
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