American Entomology, or Descriptions of the Insects of North America .... 3 vols.

Philadelphia: Samuel Augustus Mitchell, 1824-1828. First Edition.. Original publisher's pink glazed paper over boards with a paper label on the front cover of volume 1; pale green paper backstrips with mounted paper labels.. Very good bright copy; some sporadic modest foxing; bindings broken with front covers separated; spine of volume 3 with substantial abrasion; paper labels in tact on volumes 2 & 3; untrimmed; vol. 3 unopened and both covers separated.. 8vo, I - Engraved title, viii (including printed title), [9 - 116], [3 - index], [1 - blank] pp. + 18 color lithographic plates; II - [2], [3 - 135], [1 - blank], [3 - index], [1 - blank] pp. + 18 color lithographic plates; III - [2], [3 - 134], [3 - index], [1 - blank] pp. + 18 color lithographic plates. There are 54 plates total and the engraved title. Printed on a heavy, milled paper without a watermark. All plates are inserted. The binding boards are exceptionally heavy and rigid.

Say, the zoologist for the Long Expedition to the Rockies and "father" of American entomology, had planned to write this book from 1815 (the rare 10 page Prospectus was issued in 1816). He was appointed curator at the newly founded APS and professor of natural history at the Univ. of PA. The work was finally completed in 1828. It is taxonomic with descriptions. The plates are exceptional renderings and must be counted as among the earliest wholly American color plate natural history books produced. Nissen ZBI #3612; Sabin #77370; DAB XVI, pp. 401-402; not in Reese; see Blum, Picturing Nature ...., pp. 54-59.