John Paul Jones: Commemoration at Annapolis, April 24, 1906
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1907. First Edition. Black and white tissue-guarded plates, drawings. Cloth over boards. Quarto. 210 pages.
Detailed account of the discovery, identification, and transfer to Annapolis of the body of John Paul Jones, following the efforts of U. S. Ambassador to France, Horace Porter.
Includes the transcripts of addresses by Theodore Roosevelt and other dignitaries on the occasion of the commemoration at the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
Among the numerous illustrations are facsimiles of letters written by Jones, plans of the cemetery in which Jones was found, the house in which Jones died, the frontispiece of his 1798 "Memoires de Paul Jones," and much more.
Interestingly, this volume contains the first published use of superimposed photographic images for purposes of forensic identification. A photograph of the head of Jones' exhumed corpse is superimposed on a photograph of the bust of Jones sculpted by Jean-Antoine Houdon. (See the peer-reviewed article by Nikki L. Rogers, Ph.D., "The First Use of a Composite Image in Forensic Facial Superimposition: The Case of John Paul Jones, 1907," in Journal of Forensic Identification Vol. 55, No. 3).
Bound in dark blue cloth over bevelled boards with gilt-stamped spine and upper board titles, patterned endpapers, top edge gilt, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. Minor extremity rubs and shallow bumps, and some minor scattered foxing inside. Hinges sound, gilt titles remain strong. Overall a fine copy.
Item #1861
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