Polar, Arctic and the origin of the Resolute desk in the White House, 1857. Captain DELANO's copy

Captain Joseph Clement Delano (owner). - George Frederick M'DOUGALL (c.1825 – 1871). The Eventful Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ship "Resolute" to the Arctic Regions in search of Sir John Franklin... London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857. Octavo (8 5/8 x 5 ½ inches; 219 x 138 mm.) Pp. [i-]x-xl; [1-]4-530; [i-ii adverts], [1-]4-24 adverts dated ‘March 1855’. Half-title. 1 folding engraved map with partial hand-coloring and routes supplied in red and blue, 8 tinted lithographed plates, some finished by hand with coloring of flags, wood-engraved illustrations, all after M’Dougall’s original drawings. (Short split to one fold of the map, repaired using archival paper repair tape). Original pictorial blindstamped red pebble-grained cloth, spine titled in gilt, brown endpapers, the pastedowns each with letterpress advertisements for ‘The Traveller’s Library’ (bumping to extremities, joints worn, spine faded, one small hole in the cloth, rubbed and bumped at head and foot). Provenance: Captain Joseph Clement Delano (1796-1886, signature to title,  primary commander and 2/16th owner of the packet ship ‘Patrick Henry’ [see wikipedia])

First edition with an appropriate provenance. McDougall sailed as Master aboard the Resolute, one of five ships in Sir Edward Belcher's Franklin search expedition. This is essentially his shipboard journal from April 1852 until the Resolute was abandoned in the ice in May 1854. After being abandoned, the Resolute apparently broke free from the ice, and was found floating near Baffin Island in 1855 by an American whaling ship, the ‘George Henry’. 

This book includes an account of the eventual recovery by the Americans: it was subsequently bought by the U.S. Government and returned to Britain where it was presented to Queen Victoria.

A desk was later built using its timbers and presented to the President of the United States in thanks; it is now situated in the Oval Office in the White House where it has been used by most of the subsequent Presidents. Arctic Bibliography 10603; Hill 1124; Sabin 43183.