1969 LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION. Full Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804-1806 - All Loose Maps Present.

A near fine complete set of Reuben Gold Thwaites’ eight-volume edition of the Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804–1806, one of the most significant imprints in discovery and exploration scholarship. 

Prior to Thwaites’ initial 1904–1905 publication, the public relied heavily on Nicholas Biddle's 1814 heavily sanitized and heavily edited narrative paraphrase, which omitted vast quantities of primary scientific, ethnographic, and daily observational data. Thwaites was the first scholar to transcribe and publish the actual unedited daily journals of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and key crew members line-for-line, preserving their exact phonetic spelling, vernacular, syntax, and raw field observations. Arno's complete 8 volume edition is simply the highest quality imprint of Thwaites' definitive text available. 

Unlike many extant examples of the  Arno edition, the present offering includes the dedicated loose leaf atlas, contained in an eighth volume and housed in the accompanying clamshell box. The atlas contains precise facsimile reproductions of fifty-four route maps drawn by William Clark along with detailed topographical charts, making it an indispensable resource for understanding early American exploration, territorial boundary plotting, and Native American settlement locations.

The 1969 Arno Press printing is a highly durable, faithful reprint of Thwaites’ landmark centennial work at a time when the original 1904 Dodd, Mead & Company sets had become virtually unobtainable outside of major university special collections. Enhanced by an insightful introduction from renowned historian Bernard DeVoto.

Thwaites, Reuben Gold [Ed.] Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804 - 1806. With an Introduction by Bernard De Voto. Complete in 8 Volumes. Arno Press. 1969. 

Very good, near fine in original green cloth with onlay illustration. Volume 8 is the clamshell volume contaning the loose folding maps. This volume often absent or pilfered. Some very minor bumping. Else a pristine, unused set.