First editions of John Franklin’s land expeditions to the Arctic. Franklin had served on Matthew Flinders’s Australian voyage, and also with a previous expedition to the Arctic, before leading these overland expeditions. In his first, he explored the territory from York Factory to the mouth of the Coppermine River, and east along the Arctic coast to Point Turnagain, travelling 5,500 miles. He returned in 18125, conducting a second overland expedition in tandem with Beechey’s voyage to the Behring Strait. His party followed the Mackenzie River to the mouth, from where Franklin and George Back headed west in an attempt to link up with Beechey - instead having to turn back a Return Reef. A second group under John Richardson explored east from the Mackenzie; between them the two parties added some 1200 miles of coastline to the map. In addition to the narrative, these copies also offer a free-standing portrait of Franklin bound as frontispiece to the first volume, engraved by F. C. Lewis after an original drawing by G. R. Lewis, published by Hurst & Robinson in January 1824. The books are additionally enhanced by a tipped-in signature of John Franklin, part of a letter in which he refers to Edward Finden, who engraved the plates that adorn the narratives.