?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(ARCTIC.) Advertisement for "McCauley & Co.'s Gigantic Panoramic . . . Illustrations of Dr. Kane's World-Renowned Last Arctic Voyage." 2 printed pages on one broadsheet, 27 x 10 1/2 inches; upper margin defective with loss of one letter, otherwise minor wear including short separations at folds. [Frederick, MD?]: Herald Print, 18 September [1860]
American explorer Elisha Kent Kane's Second Grinnell Expedition from 1853 to 1855 failed to find Sir John Franklin, but reached a new "furthest north" and discovered the northernmost channel between Canada and Greenland. The journey broke Kane's health and he died in 1857. This lecture program, enhanced by a panorama by artist George Heilge and a diorama, toured across the United States and Canada to capitalize on popular interest in the expedition. Kane's navigator Thomas Hickey narrated the adventure "in Esquimaux Costume," accompanied by two sledge dogs which survived the expedition. The front of this broadsheet is mostly devoted to newspaper testimonials on the show, while the verso lists the entire 122-point program, from the Advance's departure from New York, Greenland scenery, "a desperate conflict with bears," "Graves of poor Schubert and Baker by moonlight," the return of the survivors to civilization, and Kane's death and funeral.
This broadsheet advertises three dates at "Junior Hall" from 18 to 20 September. This was very likely Junior Hall in Frederick, MD, with the printer being the Frederick Herald. Kane died in 1857, one of the testimonials is dated 1859, and 1860 was the next year which fits these dates on the calendar.
