* MAURY, Matthew Fontaine (1806-1873). A Chart Illustrative of the Cruise of the American Arctic Expedition in search of Sir John Franklin. In the Years 1850 & 51. [Washington, D. C.: United States Hydrographical Office, ca 1851].

Engraved chart with hand-coloring in outline printed on thin paper of the First Grinnell Expedition, the first American attempt to find Franklin's lost Polar expedition, 616 x 622 mm image (637 x 640 mm sheet). (Tears with loss to left corners, creased.)

FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE, INSCRIBED BY WELSH, the chart's compiler, in the margin: "Compliments of G. P. Welsh." A second state, on thick paper by Disturnell & Schroeter in New York, was issued with a label pasted over the names of the engravers of the first issue, Sherman & Smith. This rare chart of the First Grinnell Expedition was constructed by Maury; Welsh compiled it, showing the path the American vessels took along Greenland, across Baffin bay, and up the Wellington Channel. Areas shaded blue indicate new geographic discoveries from that expedition. Franklin's Polar expedition set out on 19 May 1845 in Terror and Erebus; they were sighted by a whaling vessel off Baffin Island on 26 July 1845, and were never seen again. The first search party was dispatched in 1847. American merchant Henry Grinnell financed this first American effort to locate Franklin and his party. VERY UNCOMMON: Rare Book Hub traces only one sale of this Arctic rarity in over one hundred years: the Edward Everett Hale copy, sold Merwin-Clayton Sales Company New York, sale 408, lot 36, 19 June 1911; WorldCat locates 7 copies in institutions.