Nov 17, 2016 - Sale 2432

Sale 2432 - Lot 53

Price Realized: $ 1,375
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
HEAVILY ANNOTATED COPY (ARCTIC.) Osborn, Sherard and George F. McDougall, eds. Facsimile of the Illustrated Arctic News, Published on Board H.M.S. Resolute. [4], 57 lithographed pages, some hand-colored, with lithographed text in two columns. Folio, disbound, boards present; title page quite worn at edges without loss of text, otherwise moderate wear and soiling to contents; heavily annotated in a contemporary hand, including narratives covering the front free endpaper and the verso of the title page. London, 1852

Additional Details

The first published edition of a manuscript newspaper composed aboard one of the Franklin search vessels during the winter of 1850-51. Apparently the adventurers kept themselves occupied with theatricals while frozen in. They also found the first evidence of Franklin's lost expedition, a winter camp and three graves on Beechey's Island. Abbey Travel 639; Sabin 23608.
The manuscript notes were apparently written by an expedition participant, as they frequently expand upon events described in the articles. The section on the front free endpaper seems to be abstracted from an unpublished diary covering the events of march through November 1850. A parenthetical note on verso of the title reads "this style I P.J.B. noticed approaching the burial places of the Norse Kings." We have not been able to identify the author, but they may have borne the initials P.J.B. Provenance: renowned later Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962); his widow Evelyn (1913-2009); her brother Myron Jenner (1916-1985); his widow Judith Jenner; by descent to the consignor.