Philadelphia: D. Rice and A. N. Hart. Very Good with no dust jacket; Slight offsetting of plates onto their tissue covers. Scattered, tiny mineral specks in paper. Occasional, faint foxing at edges of leaves. Raised bands, joints, edges, and corners rubbed. Marring and small losses to gilt edges. Faint offsetting at edges of pastedowns and endpapers. Vol I: Small ink and marker notation front endpaper. 1859. Hardcover. Concise biographical essays of popular, influential, and famed, politicians, businessfolk, clergy, inventors, explorers: collected from the original serialized version of 1833. All the movers and shakers, men and women, that were deemed important from the beginning of the Republic. This edition 1859[1856]. Tissue-covered steel engraved portrait plates of all concerned. Each engraving lists the painted portrait it replicates and the painter where known. Raised bands, ornately embossed brown full-leather publisher's binding over heavy beveled boards, gilt all edges of block, marker ribbons. Unpaginated, approximately 300pp per volume. All corners still sharp, joints and hinges sound. All engraved plates present. Internally clean, still fairly tight. With the ownership blind stamp of Jack McKim Vorhies, noted numismatic author on obsolete bank notes. Each front pastedown with the (presumably) original bookseller's label of James Rudd, Louisville KY who sold each volume at $10. A complete set that's attractive, a good representation of how the Republic of 1833 saw its favorite sons and daughters, and superior to the mass-market sets of the era. All volumes VG condition.; Engravings; 4to 11" - 13" tall; 300 each pages .