Birds and Fish of Japan

In March of 1852, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry received orders to command a diplomatic mission to Japan. Some 18 previous expeditions, 4 of them from America, had failed to breach the Japanese wall of isolation. And while the Perry expedition is famous as a diplomatic coup, less well known are the expedition’s contributions to the sciences of astronomy, hydrography, ethnology, botany, geology, medicine, ornithology, ichthyology, and conchology.

The three-volume report of the expedition to the U.S. House of Representatives, Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China seas and Japan, performed in the years 1852, 1853 and 1854 under the command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy by order of the government of the United States, was printed in Washington, D.C. by A.O.P. Nicholson in 1856. In addition to the narrative report, the set includes a multitude of charts, fold-out maps,  and illustrations.

Volume II of the set contains a myriad of reports on the agriculture, geology, medicine, biology, and botany of Japan. It includes these beautifully engraved color illustrations of birds, fish, and shellfish, as well as other engravings and illustrations.

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Birds

Plate 2 _ Ornithology. Phasianus Scemmering II _ Temminck. Lith of Wm E Hitchcock Phila.

Plate 5 _ Ornithology. Heterornis Sericea (Gmelin). On Stone by Wm E Hitchcock.

Plate 6 _ Ornithology. Ixos Haemorrhous _ Gmelin. Lith of Wm E Hitchcock, Phila.

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Fish

Nat. Hist. Pl. III. No. 1 – Serranus Tsirimenara. No. 2 – Serranus Marginalis. Bayard Taylor del.

Nat. Hist. Pl. IV. No. 1 – Sebastes Marmoratus. No. 2 – Sebastes Marmoratus. H. Patterson del.

Nat. Hist. Pl. V. No 1. Pelor Japonicum – Life Size. No. 2 – Sebastes Inermis – Life Size. No. 3 – Trigla Burgei. H. Patterson del.

Nat. Hist. Pl. VIII. 1. Serranus Urodelus. 2. Iulis Quadricolor. 3 & 4 – Iulis Lutesens.

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Shellfish

Conchology Plate II. H. Lawrence, Lith. 88 John St. New York

Conchology Plate V. H. Lawrence, Lith. 88 John St. New York

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Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China seas and Japan… is a part of the U.S. Serial Set, which is a series of over 14,000 volumes containing hundreds of thousands of numbered congressional reports and documents which have been published since 1817. Grand Valley State University houses this set in Special Collections & University Archives in agreement with the Grand Rapids Public Library.