THE UNITED STATES GRINNELL EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. A Personal Narrative [with,] ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS: THE SECOND GRINNELL EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, 1853, '54, '55

New York, Philadelphia: Sheldon, Blakeman and Co, and Childs and Peterson, 1857. Together 3 volumes. An Early Edition of each. Engraved title-pages dated 1856 in the second of the two works presented here. A set with fine provenance, coming from the Lowell family of Massachusetts and New England. Both works very extensively illustrated, including numerous fine engraved plates and portraits, hundreds of engravings within the text, vignette title-pages, and four maps or charts, three of which are fold-out and two of which are quite large. 8vo, in uniform contempoary bindings of three-quarter chocolate pebbled morocco over marbled boards, the backs and corner pieces trimmed with gilt rule, the spines with tall gilt-stippled raised bands creating compartments double-framed in gilt, two compartments gilt lettered, decorative gilt tooling at the heads and tails, marbled endpapers and marbled page edges. xix, 552; 464; 467 pp. An esecially handsome set, the fine antique bindings well preserved and with the morocco in fine condition, the hinges are strong and sturdy, no chipping to the spine tips whatsoever, bright gilt. Internally the text-blocks are in very good order, the text leaves very clean and fresh, a bit of light spotting or toning to the prelims only, the maps in essentially pristine condition, one with a small closed tear at the hinge area. THREE VOLUMES ENCOMPASSING TWO IMPORTANT WORKS PUBLISHED AND BOUND UNIFORMLY AND MAKING A FINE AND VERY HANDSOME SET. UNUSUALLY WELL PRESERVED COPIES OF EACH VOLUME. This is the most attractive binding we've seen on any of these volumes.
Doctor Kane had been the ship's surgeon on the First Grinnell Expedition of 1850 and upon that mission's unsuccessful return he immediately set out in command of the Second. That mission was also a failure in that no trace of the lost Franklin Party was ever found, but these missions did achieve many important geographical and mapping successes and celebrated the writing skills and graphic style which captured the imagination of the public and, in the words of Pierre Berton, “...served as the impetus for the continuing polar quest.” An important body of work for both reasons.