An Illustrated Atlas, Geographical Statistical, and Historical, of the United States, and the adjacent countries

Book Description

Boston & New York: stereotyped and printed by Fulsom, Wells & Thurston of Cambridge, Mass. for Weeks, Jordan & Co. of Boston and Wiley & Putnam of New York, 1838. Folio. (19 1/2 x 15 3/4 inches). 39 hand-coloured engraved maps and town-plans (34 maps [one folding], 5 town-plans), by G.W.Boynton and others. (Repaired tear to the lower blank margin of the additional title). Contemporary dark green morocco over purple cloth-covered boards, publisher's cream paper title label mounted on upper cover, spine gilt in five compartments with wide raised bands, the bands tooled in gilt, lettered in gilt in the second compartment, marbled endpapers. A fine atlas, `one of the first American general atlases to supplement the maps with lengthy geographical descriptions.' (Ristow) With detailed maps of the 28 States, and including an excellent early map of the republic of Texas. Martin and Martin, in their entry on Bradford's 1835 map of Texas, also note that `Bradford published a completely new atlas in 1838, in a larger format, and the map of Texas it contained was even more clearly patterned on [Stephen Fuller] Austin's [Map of Texas, published in Philadelphia in 1830].' It was one of the first atlas maps of Texas as a Republic. The atlas is made up of a general map of North America, two maps of Canada, a folding map of the United States, 28 maps of States, a map of the Republic of Texas, a map of the islands of the Caribbean and five town-plans of eight U.S. cities (Washington, New Orleans, Louisville and Cincinnati on one sheet, and single sheet plans of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore). Unlike many atlases of the period, the present work includes extensive text (170pp. in total). Each engraving is accompanied by explanatory articles on the history, economics and geography of the area, as well as a great deal of contemporary statistical information. Le Gear L33; cf. Martin & Martin p.125; cf. Phillips Atlases 1381

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