RARE LEWIS MERIWETHER (1774-1809) AND WILLIAM CLARK (1770-1838), FIRST EDITION, 1814. History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed during the years 1804-5-6. Philadelphia: [by J. Maxwell at New York for] Bradford and Inskeep, 1814. 2 volumes, 8o, (8.625 inches x 5.5 inches). With original large folding engraved "Map of Lewis and Clark's Track Across the Western Portion of North America" (26.5 inches x 8.25 inches) engraved by Samuel Harrison after Clark, five other engraved plates and maps (large map complete with some spotting, a few short splits along folds). Title page of volume I inscribed “William Jackson Jr” and additionally” William Jackson Jr” in a different hand on preface page. Original tooled leather covers.  It is unknown whether the “William Jackson Jr.” whose name is inscribed in the first volume, is any relation to the secretary to the United States Constitutional Convention and Revolutionary War veteran, William Jackson (1759-1828). It is recorded that both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were in attendance at his wedding in 1796.

Provenance:
The estate of bibliophile and book dealer Patricia Jane (nee Nichols) Nagel 1923-2014. A native of Chicago, in 1948 she and her husband Harold Nagel, a recent graduate of Northwestern Law School, moved to Stockton, Illinois. In the early 1960’s Patricia’s love of books lead her to establish Plum River Books, a small private mail order bookstore which was located above her husband’s law office in Stockton, Illinois and which at one time consisted of an inventory of over 6,000 volumes. According to her children, their mother was “probably more of a collector than a dealer, and the offered lot was always one of her most prized possessions.”   

First edition of the "most important of all overland narratives," and the "definitive account of the most important exploration of the north American continent" (Wagner-Camp), including a prefatory "Life of Captain Lewis" by President Jefferson. The expedition was commissioned by Jefferson and funded by Congress in early 1803 at a cost of $2,500. The publication of Lewis and Clark's account was delayed by the appointments of both leaders to positions in the newly formed Louisiana Territory, and later by the death of Lewis in 1809. When this "most important of all overland narratives" (Grolier) was finally published, a high percentage of the copies in the first printing apparently lacked the large folding map or were defective.