James's Account of S.H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820

Cleveland, Ohio: Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland, 1904-1905. Three volumes in maroon cloth; 329 pages: map, facsimile; 25 cm; approx 300-400 pages per volumes; bibl. footnotes. A bright and crisp near fine+ to fine(-) set with minor wear to exterioe. Hardcover.

A complete set of three volumes of Long's Expedition. Comprising Volumes XIV, XV & XVI of Thwaites' Early Western Travels. A cornerstone of Western Americana. "Stephen Harriman Long’s expedition of 1819–1820 was one of the most ambitious government surveys of the trans-Mississippi West in the early republic. Commissioned by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun and led by Major Long of the U.S. Topographical Engineers, it aimed to explore the Missouri and Platte River systems, assess natural resources, and evaluate routes for commerce and military posts. The scientific corps included Edwin James as botanist and geologist, Thomas Say as naturalist, Titian Peale as artist, and William Baldwin as surgeon, though Baldwin died early in the journey. Their route carried them from Pittsburgh down the Ohio and Mississippi, up the Missouri, and then west along the Platte into what is now Colorado, where they first described Long’s Peak. From there the party turned south and east through the Plains, eventually looping back through Arkansas. The expedition’s official record was prepared by Edwin James in 1823, a three-volume Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains. It offered rich detail in natural history, ethnography, and geology, and included the first recorded ascent of a Rocky Mountain peak. At the same time, it gave currency to the idea of the “Great American Desert,” casting the High Plains as arid and unfit for agriculture—a judgment that influenced U.S. policy and delayed settlement. Long’s maps and James’s descriptions became important tools in shaping federal attitudes toward western lands and Native nations. The work was later reprinted in Reuben Gold Thwaites’ monumental series Early Western Travels, 1748–1846, occupying volumes 14 through 16, and it remains a cornerstone of American exploration literature.