Description
First American edition of Gray’s Anatomy by Dr. Henry Gray, published in 1859 in Philadelphia.
Thick octavo, xxxii, 754pp, [2], 80pp ads. Rebound in full leather with remnants of original leather laid down on spine and front cover, original spine label with title stamped in gilt. New endpapers. Solid binding, mild foxing to text pages, occasional finger marks, a few minor pencil notations, small stain at top of text block. Embossed seal of Howard Memorial Library New Orleans on page 87 with call number/accession number stamped on preliminary pages, no other library markings. Contains half-title and all 363 wood engravings. Publisher’s catalogue at end dated July, 1859 with archival tissue repairs to ad pages 75-80.
(Garrison-Morton 418) (Heirs of Hippocrates 356)
In writing Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical, Dr. Henry Gray wanted to provide both medical students and surgeons with a useful and affordable textbook on human anatomy. Gray worked on the book with fellow anatomist, Henry Vandyke Carter, performing dissections to which Gray produced the descriptive text and Carter the illustrations.
A groundbreaking work in its field, the first edition of Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical was published in London in 1858 with a print run of 2,000 copies. The book’s octavo size, well-organized format, clear text and detailed illustrations made it extremely successful. The following year, the first American edition was published in Philadelphia, with errors from the previous edition corrected. While revised numerous times since then, Gray’s Anatomy, as it is popularly known today, still remains a standard medical reference work.
