Records of the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 (inclusive)
Contains manuscripts and drawings, probably gathered by Asa Gray in producing the expedition's first report. Includes lists of plants collected on the expedition (created by several individuals); letters by Francis Boott and Brackenridge containing notes on Carices and Unciniae and catalog of p...
| Summary: | Contains manuscripts and drawings, probably gathered by Asa Gray in producing the expedition's first report. Includes lists of plants collected on the expedition (created by several individuals); letters by Francis Boott and Brackenridge containing notes on Carices and Unciniae and catalog of phanogamous plants; notes by Gray on plants of Hawaii and his manuscript for the unpublished portion of the botanical report. Also colored drawings, possibly field sketches, mostly by Alfred T. Agate and some by Joseph Drayton; and black and white drawings by Agate, W.R. Hutton, Drayton and Isaac Sprague. The U. S. Exploring Expedition ("Wilkes Expedition") was the first attempt by the United States to undertake an expedition for scientific and navigational investigations on the order of contemporaneous British and French expeditions. The expedition sailed from the Chesapeake Bay on August 18, 1838 under the command of Charles Wilkes. It proceeded to Madeira, Cape Verde, South America, Antarctica, Pacific Islands, Australia, Oregon and California coast, Hawaii, Philippines, Singapore, around the Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena and returned to New York in June 1842. Botanical collections were made by William Rich, William Dunlop Brackenridge, Charles Pickering and others, including naval officers. Asa Gray assisted in producing the first botanical report (1854), with other botanists' reports appearing between 1854 and 1874. Records of the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842. Gray Herbarium Archives, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Unpublished finding aids available in repository. |
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