Lithographs illustrating the 1857 account of Matthew Perry's expedition to Japan and the South China Seas.

After 200 years of self-imposed isolation, this US expedition of 1853 forced Japan to open its borders to trade with the west. Two artists accompanied the expedition and recorded in watercolor views of places and people unseen for centuries. The lithographs were made from the paintings and daguerrotypes, and illustrated the edition of the account of the expedition first published in 1857.   Each is titled and credits an artist or two or even three, and usually indicates the company that produced the lithograph and its location.

Dimensions given are of the images only, without rule lines or titles, and all are on full pages from the book, likely a second or later 19th-century edition.  The colors are original: they have not been tinted or the prints otherwise altered. These are examples Perry Expedition prints available as a group.

"Japanese Junk"	"Street in Napha, Lew Chew"	"Chief temple, Hakodadi"
"Funchal, Madeira, from the Curral"	"Entrance to a temple at Hakotadi"	"Hindoo costumes, Mauritius"
"Devotions in the great temple  Simoda"		"View from Webster Island, Yedo Bay"
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