WILKES (Cmdr. Charles).
Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition.
With this voyage the United States entered a field of endeavour long dominated by Britain, France and to a lesser extent Russia. This is the narrative for the expedition, a lavishly produced work, but it was supported by several specialist scientific volumes produced by the savants who accompanied the expedition.
The Antarctic content of the work is of special significance “In January and February 1840, sighted the Antarctic continent and followed its coastline for a distance of more than fifteen hundred miles… he was the first to definitely announce the existence of the Antarctic continent” (Lydenberg & Haskell).
One thousand copies of this, the first generally available edition were produced. Wilkes commented that “in some respects as a library and reading book it is to be preferred to the 4to edition”. One hundred and fifty copies of which had been produced at the same time. Ferguson, 4209; Haskell, 2b.
