Carey's American Pocket Atlas: Containing Twenty Maps with a Brief Description of Each State, and of Louisiana: Also, the Census of the Inhabitants of the United States

Carey's American pocket atlas : containing twenty maps with a brief description of each state, and of Louisiana: also, the census of the inhabitants of the United States, for 1801 and the exports from the United States for ten years

Carey, Mathew

Philadelphia : Published by M. Carey...1805


Bound in contemporary calf. Gilt, red leather spine label. Rehinged and rejointed. Marbled end papers. 119 p. 20 maps (including folding US map) & folding table. Lacking subscribers list.   Scattered foxing, spotting throughout.   Some marginal edge wear. <br><br> The third edition of the first American pocket atlas, significant for its new cartographic and textual information relating to the Louisiana Purchase and its map of the region published during the Lewis and Clark expedition. The guide, first published in 1796, is among the best early guides to the infant United States. This edition includes a general map of the United States, and maps of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio and the Northwest Territory, Maryland, Virginia, "Kentuckey" [sic], North Carolina, Tennessee (titled "Tennassee: lately the S.W. Territory"), South Carolina, Mississippi Territory and Georgia, and Louisiana. The maps were engraved by W. Barker, J.H. Seymour, A. Doolittle, and Shallus. Each map is accompanied by text, presumably written by Carey, which reviews the geography, laws, climate, navigation, commerce, and native tribes of each region.  This edition, as the 1801 second edition of the atlas, includes a folding table providing information from the Federal Census of 1801 and a second table reviewing the value of exports from each state between 1791 and 1800. The map of Ohio in this edition of the pocket atlas is among the first to depict the state following its entry into the Union, being printed from the same plate as the previous maps of the "Northwest Territory" but with changes to the plate reflecting statehood (see Smith, MAPPING OF OHIO, chapter 5, plate VI). However, the more significant additions to this 1805 edition of the pocket atlas, given prominence on the re-set title page for this edition, are the textual material relating to the Louisiana Purchase and the map of Louisiana not found in the previous editions. The map, engraved by Shallus, depicts the entire region west of the Mississippi River to the Pacific. The map is derivative of the 1804 Arrowsmith and Lewis map, with a similar "Soulard" mapping of the upper Missouri (see Wheat, TRANSMISSISSIPPI WEST 266 and chapter xi). The map would be the "base for maps of later vintage" (Wheat) including the map in Lester's 1809 so-called Apocrypha edition of Lewis and Clark, as well as in the 1812 Philadelphia edition of Gass' JOURNAL published by Carey. Interestingly, the latter appears to use the identical map as is here, with Wheat suggesting it to be a remainder, though more likely printed from the same plate (with the name of the engraver removed), as it was not included in Carey's 1810 or 1811 editions of Gass. This early cartographic fruit relating to the region takes on added significance considering its publication during the Lewis and Clark expedition. Howes C137; Shaw & Shoemaker 8134; Sabin 10856. Cf. Wheat, Transmississippi 266; Literature of Lewis & Clark, 3.7.

  • Product Code: 2008260107
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Tags: Featured, Cartography, American History, Fine Bindings