Narrative of the North Polar Expedition. U.S. Ship Polaris, Captain Charles Francis Hall commanding. Edited under the direction of the Hon. G. M. Robeson, Secretary of the Navy, by Rear-Admiral C. H. Davis, U.S.N. U.S. Naval Observatory, 1876
Washington, D.C. G.P.O., 1876. First edition, large 8vo, pp. [2], 696; frontispiece portrait of Hall, engraved frontispiece of the Polaris, 32 plates (1 hand-colored), 27 illustrations in text and 6 maps; errata slip lain in; original pictorial terracotta cloth stamped in gilt, rebacked in attractive matching niger morocco, gilt-paneled spine in 6 compartments, gilt-lettered direct in 4; the boards and spine a little spotted, several of tissue guards torn; all else very good and sound. The narrative of the Polaris Expedition to reach the North Pole in 1871-73, to explore the regions north of Smith Sound, and to make scientific observations. Hall is perhaps best known for best known for his collection of Inuit testimony regarding the 1845 Franklin Expedition. Hall died on the journey at the age of 50, and the circumstances surrounding his death were murky, if not suspicious. "Before he died, he accused members of the crew - the expedition's lead scientist, Emil Bessels, in particular - of having poisoned him. An exhumation of his body in 1968 revealed that he had ingested a large quantity of arsenic in the last two weeks of his life ... Most recently, the emergence of affectionate letters written by both Hall and Bessels to Vinnie Ream, a young sculptor they both met in New York while waiting for the Polaris to be outfitted, suggests a possible motive for Bessels to eliminate Hall" (Wikipedia). Arctic Bibliography 18382. Item #61107
Price: $350.00
