Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China Seas and Japan : performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854. (3 Volumes)

Washington : Beverley Tucker (US Congress; Navy Department), 1856-01-01. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 3 volume set. Rebacked on later blue cloth, with original cloth boards. Hardcover. Good bindings and covers. Internally the first two volumes are in exceptional condition. The spine lettering of V.3 is some what faded and has some stains on the end page. Refs: Hill 1332; Sabin 30968. <br> Contents: Vol. 1. Narrative ... compiled from the original notes and journals of Commodore Perry and his officers, at his request, and under his supervision, by Francis L. Hawks. --Vol. 2. [Natural history reports] by D.S. Green. --Vol. 3. Observations on the zodiacal light from April 2, 1853 to April 22, 1855, made chiefly on board the United States Steam-Frigate Mississippi during her late cruise in eastern seas and her voyage homeward with conclusions from the data thus obtained, by Rev. George Jones. <br> "In January 1852 [Perry] was selected to undertake the most important diplomatic mission ever entrusted to an American naval officer, the negotiation of a treaty with Japan, a country at this time sealed against intercourse with the Occidental powers" (DAB). By March 31, 1854, the treaty granting the U.S. trading rights had been signed by the Japanese. Upon his return to the U.S., his chief duty for the following year was to compile his reports of the expedition, aided by Francis Hawks. The first volume has the account of the voyage and lithographs of the travel; the second volume has the natural history reports by D.S. Green and others and includes hand-colored plates of Japanese fishes and shells. In addition to the artist W. Heine, from whose drawings a great number of the lithographs were made, the daguerreotypist E. Brown, Jr., went on the expedition, taking what were undoubtedly the earliest photographic images of Japan, many of them reproduced lithographically in this work. Refs: Hill 230-231; Sabin 30968. <br> Signature of Frederick Tomlinson Peet (of Brooklyn & Auburn, NY), 1841 - 1925. Peet joined the 7th New York State Militia in 1861, the day Fort Sumter was fired on. He served as a Lieutenant with the Army of the Potomac in the Peninsula Campaign, siege of Yorktown, and saw action at the battles of Chicahominy, Hanover Court House, Savage Station, White Oak Swamp, Glendale. He was wounded in 1862 and taken prisoner at Libby Prison in Richmond. He was freed in a prisoner exchange. He later joined the US Marine Corps was served in Charleston and Stone Inlet, SC, as well as on the USS Ossipee and Niagra. - History of Cayuga County, New York, 586-587 p. <br> This is an oversized or heavy book, which requires additional postage for international delivery outside the US.