Arctic Geography and Ethnography by H.F. Stephenson with signatures first 1875

A Selection of Papers on Arctic Geography and Ethnography. [together with] A Series of Cut Signatures from the 1875 expedition party.
 
London: John Murray, 1875
 
8vo., blue publisher’s cloth; boards embossed with two-double rules and corner pieces; lettered and decorated to spine with emblem of the Royal Geographical Society, brown endpapers; pp. [v], vi-xii, [i], 2-292; numerous charts and diagrams within text; including two folding maps; a tight, fresh copy with the odd spot, and a couple of small ink marks to lower edge; some light retouching along spine, which is also a little darkened; ends slightly pushed; a very good copy. 
 
First edition, containing a collection of papers originally published in the Royal Geographical Society’s own transactions and proceedings. Intended for use by the Nares-led expedition to Greenland in 1875, articles featured here include On the Best Means of Reaching the Pole by Admiral Baron von Wrangell, Papers on the Greenland Eskimos by Clements R. Markham, and The Arctic Current Around Greenland by a member of the Danish Navy. 
 
Also loosely included is a small envelope belonging to ‘F. Huskisson Esq.’ (likely a member of staff at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich) containing a collection of five autographs. The names each belong to a member of the expedition, which failed in its mission to reach the North Pole, but did succeed in bringing back what Nares went on to describe as “a most valuable collection of photographs of subjects connected with arctic life and scenes”. 
 
Included are: 
 
Henry Frederick Stephenson (1842-1919), Captain of HMS Discovery
Crawford John Markland Conybeare (1854-1937), Sub-lieutenant of the same
Charles Edward Hodson (1846-1929), Chaplain
Daniel Cartmel (1838-1901), engineer
and
George White (1847-1913), assistant Engineer and - along with Thomas Mitchell - co-photographer of the expedition.