Bradford’s Illustrated Atlas – Volume with 39 Maps
$11,500
In stock
An Illustrated Atlas, Geographical Statistical, and Historical, of the United States, and the adjacent countries
This historic atlas with 39 maps is Thomas Gamaliel Bradford’s An Illustrated Atlas, Geographical Statistical, and Historical, of the United States, and the adjacent countries. The work was published in Boston and Cincinnati in 1838. The work was stereotyped and printed by Fulsom, Wells & Thurston of Cambridge, Mass. for Weeks, Jordan & Co. of Boston and Edward Lucas & Co. of Cincinnati.
The work featured 39 originally hand-colored engraved maps and town plans. It also includes extensive text about the history, economics, and geography of the areas on the maps. It is bound in contemporary light brown half Morocco over embossed cloth-covered boards, brown Morocco title label on the upper cover, lettered in gilt, pine divided into five compartments by wide semi-raised bands, the bands highlighted with gilt tooling, marbled endpapers.
This is “one of the first American general atlases to supplement the maps with lengthy geographical descriptions.” (Ristow) It includes detailed maps of the 28 states and plans for US cities. This included Washington DC, New Orleans, Louisville and Cincinnati on one sheet, and single sheet plans of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
The atlas also included an early map of the Republic of Texas, one of the earliest maps of Texas to appear in an atlas. “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].” (Martin & Martin)
Provenance: Theodore Sutton Parvin (1817-1901, Burlington, Iowa, inscription dated 15 August 1838 on additional title). Parvin was born in Cedarville, Cumberland County, New Jersey. He studied law and served as the private secretary of the first governor of Iowa Territory, Robert Lucas, in 1838. He was also the first librarian of that territory. He founded the Iowa State Historical Society in 1857. He also founded the Iowa Masonic Library in 1844.
