ELLICOTT, Andrew (1754-1820)

The Journal of Andrew Ellicott, late commissioner on behalf of the United States during part of the year 1796, the years 1797, 1798, 1799, and part of the year 1800: for determining the boundary between the United States and the possessions of his Catholic Majesty in America, containing occasional remarks on the situation, soil, rivers, natural productions, and diseases of the different countries on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Gulf of Mexico ...

Philadelphia: William Fry, 1814. Quarto. (10 x 7 3/4 inches). vii, 299, 151pp. Errata leaf. 14 engraved folding maps and charts. 2 maps with neat repairs to closed tears.

Contemporary tree calf, flat spine divided into compartments by gilt fillets, red morocco lettering piece in the second compartment.

Provenance: Samuel Mickle (early signature on title)

The "first thorough American survey of the lower Mississippi and Gulf regions" (Howes) and one of the earliest American reports on West Florida.

Following his work on laying out the plans and surveys for Washington, D.C., Ellicott was appointed commissioner to determine the boundary between the United States and Spanish Florida. His travels, occupying four years, covered the Mississippi Valley, Florida, and the southern hinterlands. First published in 1803, the text provides a detailed summary of his work, while the maps show the borders and the region in far more detail than they had been illustrated previously. At the time of the Louisiana Purchase, this was one of the foremost authorities available on the region, and Ellicott's surveys and mentoring would have a profound influence on Meriwether Lewis, whom he advised at the request of Thomas Jefferson. The present copy is a scarce example of the first edition, second issue: i.e. comprised of the sheets of the 1803 first edition, but with a cancel title page on wove paper bearing the 1814 imprint of William Fry.

Graff 1230 (1803 edition); Howes E94; Sabin 22216; Federal Hundred 95.

Item #39787

Price: $4,850.00