[Rarebooks] fa: [CHILE] U.S. NAVAL ASTRONOMICAL EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE 1855

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 24. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/t3pjr78

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Lieut. J[ames] M[elville] Gilliss: The U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere, during the Years 1849-'50-'51-'52... Volume I. Chile: its Geography, Climate, Earthquakes, Government, Social Condition, Mineral and Agricultural Resources, Commerce, &c., &c. Washington: A.O.P Nicholson, printer, 1855. First edition. Folio (30 cm) in early/period half calf over marbled boards, gilt-lettered spine label; 556 pp.; with ten full-page maps and duotone lithograph plates (one colored), three folding maps, and a large (nearly 6' long), colored folding "Panoramic view from the Summit of Santa Lucia" (complete).

Binding with some rubbing and scuffing, wear to the edges and corners; contents mildly toned, intermittent mostly light damp-staining and cockling to the leaves, a few occasional small spots, early owner's ink stamp to the title-page, else clean and sound. J. M. Gilliss (1811-1865) was a naval officer and astronomer who established the U.S. Naval Observatory. "In 1848 he obtained $5,000 from Congress for a naval astronomical expedition to Chile in order to more precisely measure the solar parallax. Gilliss headed the expedition from August 1849 until his return in November 1852. They successfully completed the planned astronomical observations and also made valuable observations of the earth's magnetic field, earthquakes, geography, politics and natural science. The specimens of fauna and flora brought back from Chile formed the earliest part of the Smithsonian collection from Latin America" (Wikipedia). This is the first volume of what would eventually be a six-volume report published over the course of forty years, and as the subtitle indicates, it deals primarily with the country of Chile itself, comprising material "obtained in occasional intervals of leisure during nearly three years occupied in prosecuting the observations for which Congress more immediately instructed the Secretary of the Navy to send an Astronomical Expedition to the southern hemisphere." Gillis's occasionally unflattering description of the young republic, its politics and people, proved controversial at the time.