[Rarebooks] fa: 1790 Gentleman's Magazine: POND'S MAP OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE - BOUNTY MUTINY - BEN FRANKLIN OBITUARY - VIEW OF BUNKER HILL, &c.

[ArCh]

Auction ending Sunday, September 25. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/2ok9x2l2

Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. For the Year MDCCXC [1790]. Volume LX [60]. Part the First. London: Printed by John Nichols for David Henry, and sold by Eliz. Newberry, 1790. Six monthly issues (Jan.-June). Thick 8vo in early/period calf-backed marbled boards; iv + 580 + [16] pp.; with in-text tables and diagrams and 18 engraved plate leaves, 3 of which are folding (complete).
With several features of North American interest, including:
	- A folding MAP OF AMERICA FROM LAT. 45 TO LAT. 65 (after Peter Pond), "shewing the communication of the Lakes and the Rivers between Lake Superior and Slave Lake in North America," accompanied by the article, "Description of the Country from Lake Superior to Cook's River." This map, with its depiction of an (imaginary) outlet from Great Slave Lake to the Pacific Ocean, influenced Alexander Mackenzie and other explorers in their ill-fated searches for a NORTHWEST PASSAGE. Additionally, "the map was the basis for Jefferson's Corps of Discovery [i.e., the LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION]" (Library of Congress, Wise Guide, August 2003). The accompanying article, a lengthy "Extract of a Letter from ***** [Isaac Ogden], of Quebec, to a Friend in London," concludes: "The person from whom I had my information is Peter Pond, who was supplied with the proper instruments here to take his latitude, and instructed fully in the knowledge of astronomy, &c... Another man, by the name of M'Kenzie, was left by Pond at Slave Lake, with orders to go down the river, and from thence to Unalaska, and so to Kamskatska, and thence to England, through Russia, &c. If he meets with no accident, you may have him with you the next year."
	- The obituary of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: "At Philadelphia, aged 84 years and 3 months, Benjamin Franklin, esq. LL.D. and F.R.S.…". Running more than three double-columned pages (surely one of the longest obituaries in the history of the magazine), it contains considerable details of Franklin's life and accomplishments. In keeping with the high-minded cosmopolitanism of the Age of Enlightenment, the Gentleman's Magazine consistently championed Franklin's scientific work, even at the height of Britain's "troubles" with America. Coincidentally, just preceding Franklin's obituary is that of an old colleague of his, John Foxcroft of New York: "Dr. Franklin and he were appointed joint postmasters-general of the province; which office, during the time of the American war, was abolished."
	- A "View of BUNKER'S HILL, with the encampments of the Generals Howe and Clinton; and Charles Town, as it appeared after being burnt by our troops… [drawn] by an officer who was in the 22nd regiment at the time."
Other notable and/or curious features include:
	- "Particulars of the MUTINY ON BOARD THE BOUNTY," one of the earliest accounts of the mutiny, Captain Bligh having only made it back to England shortly before, on March 13, 1790, after an epic journey which included "forty-six days in a crazy open boat." ... "The leader of the mutineers is named Fletcher Christian; a man of respectable family and connections, and considered a good seaman..."
	- Extensive contemporary coverage of the FRENCH REVOLUTION, including Transactions of the National Assembly; semi-monthly Accurate Statements of the late Revolution in France; etc.
	- An account of "a meeting of the friends to the memory of the late DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON," chaired by Sir Joseph Banks, in which is proposed the erection of a monument to Johnson in Westminster Abbey. The subscribers include Sir Joshua Reynolds, James Boswell, Esq., Edmond Malone, Edmond Burke, Charles Burney, Warren Hastings, etc.
	- Additional PLATES, including: Ridge's Patent Drill and Hoe Plough (folding, with a detailed description); a view and a ground-plan of the Ruins of Kirkstall Abbey; a view of Haslar Hospital (stained); Observatories at Stiernbourg and Uranienbourg; Daly's Club-house in Dublin; the Abbey of Dunbrody in Wexford; calculus found in the colon of a horse; etc.
	- Loosely laid in (formerly used as a bookmark) is a manuscript receipt, dated Dec. 1789-Jan. 1790: "Recd. Dr. Radcliffe to John Yetman... for [?] of Beef... Recd. of Wm.[?] Castle the Contents..."etc.
	- Plus parliamentary proceedings, poetry, reviews and extracts of books recently published, obituaries, accounts of Foreign Affairs; and much, much more.

Binding with some rubbing and wear to the extremities; ink stain to one page (p.9), browning and wear to the fore-edge of the map where it protrudes from the text block, light damp-staining to a the edges of the first and last few leaves, occasional light browning and spotting, a few stray stains, but the contents are generally quite clean and sound, firmly bound. Front paste-down with the handsome modern bookplate of Marius Nielsen (engraved by Johannes Britze).