260 - Lester, E. The Gallery of Illustrious Americans, containing the portraits and biographical sketches of twenty-four of the most eminent citizens of the American Republic, since the death of Washington. From Daguerreotypes by Brady, engraved by d'Avignon. First Series (= All Published). New York, Brady, d'Avignon, Lester, 1850. 26 leaves with 12 lithographic portraits by d'Avignon. Large folio. Contemporary half-leather binding with gilt title on spine (scuffed, bumped, headcaps chipped and repaired).

Lester, E. The Gallery of Illustrious Americans, containing the portraits and biographical sketches of twenty-four of the most eminent citizens of the American Republic, since the death of Washington. From Daguerreotypes by Brady, engraved by d'Avignon. First Series (= All Published). New York, Brady, d'Avignon, Lester, 1850. 26 leaves with 12 lithographic portraits by d'Avignon. Large folio. Contemporary half-leather binding with gilt title on spine (scuffed, bumped, headcaps chipped and repaired). Sabin 26415 (erroneously states that the work was completed in 1856, but no copies of the second part exist). - Early and rare American photobook. Contains portraits (along with biographical descriptions) of President Zachary Taylor, John Caldwell Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Silas Wright, Henry Clay, John Charles Fremont, John James Audubon, William Hickling Prescott, Winfield Scott, President Fillmore, William Ellery Channing, and Lewis Cass, based on daguerreotypes by Mathew Brady, the most important American portrait photographer of the 19th century. 'Brady, the commercial photographer, became Brady the historian, who used a camera as Bancroft did his pen.' It was in this year that Brady began work on the tremendous project of preserving for posterity the pictures of all distinguished Americans, which he planned to publish in a massive volume (Horan, Mathew Brady: Historian with a Camera, 1995). - The lithographs are on laid Chinese paper. - White outer edges are sometimes slightly stained or browned; portraits mostly with blind embossing and, thanks to protective silk sleeves, clean and well preserved. - Front endpaper partially reinforced with adhesive tape.