Traveller's Directory: or, a Pocket Companion, Shewing the Course
1804
by MOORE, JOSHUA J., and THOMAS W. JONES
1804. MOORE, JOSHUA J., and THOMAS W. JONES. The Traveller's Directory: or, a Pocket Companion, Shewing the Course of the Main Road from Philadelphia to New York; and from Philadelphia to Washington: With Descriptions of the Places through which it Passes, and the Intersections of the Cross Roads ... By S. S. [sic] Moore and T. W. Jones. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1804. 8vo. [4], 37, [1], 19 [i.e., 17] p. 38 engraved strip maps on 22 plates. Modern full calf, correctly done in perfect period style with original spine label (slightly chipped at edges) remounted and original endsheets relaid. Front free endsheet chipped at fore-edge, name clipped from top blank margin of title page, intermittant light browning of text and foxing of maps, as is usual with this book. A very good copy of a book never found in fine condition. Second edition of the second American book of road maps, following Christopher Colles' exceedingly rare Survey of the Roads of the United States (1789), and the first road map book to provide detailed maps of the road from Philadelphia north through New Jersey to New York, and from Philadelphia south through Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia to Washington. Joshua John Moore and Thomas W. Jones were young surveyors in the employ of the Philadelphia publisher Mathew Carey. From several letters they wrote to Carey during the course of the survey (Lea & Febiger papers, PHi), a clear picture emerges of the extremely difficult task they had undertaken. On June 29, 1801, they wrote from New York: "We should have written to you before this, had not fatigue of our daily Journies rendered repose indispensable after the finishing of our Notes and Traverses. After twelve days driving our way through an immense multitude of Questioners, Observers, laughters, & Critics, who generally thronged around us at every place, to our great discomposure at first ... we are at length arrived here. If astonishment would ensure success to a work, we may entertain strong hopes indeed of ours; but it has nearly exhausted our health, as every violent effort naturally must...." Upon completion of the surveys, the maps were drawn by the surveyors. They locate crossroads, streams, taverns, churches and other public buildings, and occasional. (Inventory #: 15117)