INSCRIBED PRESENTATION COPY OF WILLIAM VANDERBILT'S CRUISE TO GALAPAGOS ON THE ARA, 1927, WITH 30 COLOR PLATES OF RARE FISH AND MARINE LIFE

VANDERBILT, William K. To Galapagos on the Ara 1926: the Events of a Pleasure-Cruise to the Galapagos Islands and a Classification of a few rare aquatic findings, including two specimens of a new species of shark never caught before and here described for the first time. (New York): Privately Printed (by William Edwin Rudge), (1927). Folio (10 by 13-1/4 inches), original navy cloth rebacked and recornered in navy morocco, raised bands, endpapers renewed, top edge gilt, uncut. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box.

Privately printed limited first edition of Vanderbilt's voyage to Galápagos, copy number 352 of 900, presentation copy inscribed by the author on the front flyleaf, "To William Butler Duncan, from W.K. Vanderbilt, Oct. 12th, 1927." Illustrated with 30 color plates of rare fish and marine life, as well as dozens of black-and-white photographic illustrations and a large folding map.

This volume was privately printed for William "Willie K." Vanderbilt to give to his friends. "William Kissam Vanderbilt II, great-grandson of the 19th-century railroad and shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, was a naturalist, adventurer and global explorer. He indulged his passions for the sea, faraway cultures, marine life and the natural world by exploring the world on his ocean-going yachts. Vanderbilt first sailed around the earth in 1928-1929 aboard his 213-foot diesel yacht Ara, a refitted French warship. (He eventually logged 135,991 miles as her captain.) His boundless curiosity took him to Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Galápagos Islands and the South Pacific, where he collected thousands of specimens of invertebrate and marine life and birds, as well as cultural artifacts. Working with scientists from the American Museum of Natural History, he published his oceanic research and details of his specimens—some of them new discoveries—in a series of Bulletins of the Vanderbilt Marine Museum (1930-1938)" (Vanderbilt Museum). A fascinating account of this social and scientific expedition, and an excellent example of fine book production from the period. Printed by Edwin Rudge at his Mount Vernon press. Of the 900 copies printed, the first 500 were bound in "half levant," the remaining 400 in cloth. As this copy was originally bound in half leather, the present rebacking is to style, and retains the original "handmade paper sides."

Only occasional faint foxing, light rubbing to boards. A nicely refurbished copy in excellent condition.