United States Exploring Expedition. During the year 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842
This is a government-sponsored natural history atlas from the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842, compiled under Charles Wilkes and printed in Philadelphia in 1844 for Congress and scientific readers. Its plates are lithographed studies of mollusc shells, drawn as shaded views of exteriors, interiors, hinges and cross-sections, arranged in grids on cream paper. A designer could draw on the tonal modelling and the orderly specimen-grid layouts for diagrammatic or catalogue-style compositions.
