Auction 10, Cartography
(Globes, Atlases, & Maps)

Items 151–175

151. [STOCK CERTIFICATE: MERCER COLONY]. TEXAS ASSOCIATION. Ornate lithographed stock certificate commencing: Texas Association 8,000 Square Miles on the Trinity River.... Louisville: Hart, Mapother & Co., 1844. 16.4 x 25.6 (6-1/2 x 10-1/8 inches). At top: Texas lone star. At bottom: Native American and buffalo. At left, within ornamental frame: Grant 1844. At right, within ornamental frame: By the Republic of Texas. Very fine.
        Charles Fenton Mercer issued this handsome certificate to shareholders in his empresario grant to 8,000 square miles in northeast Texas, roughly between the Brazos and Sabine Rivers. From the outset, the grant and colony were beset with legal and logistical problems. Although Mercer was able to successfully settle the required number of immigrants, his colonization was hindered by the fact that political and speculator interests wanted to supplant the Republic's empresario system with the American land system, which was conducive to their financial gain. Moreover, the press of other settlers moving into the grant lands, with or without permission, was a continuing source of friction.
        Mercer's empresario grant contract was executed by Sam Houston on January 29, 1844, only one day before the final repeal of the Republic's empresario system by the Texas Congress, overriding Houston's veto of the bill. Subsequent troubles included a Congressional investigation into Mercer's contract, legal proceedings, court battles, squatters denying the claims of colony certificate holders, and the incursions of speculators and other certificate holders. Finally, in 1852 Mercer assigned all of his interest in the Texas Association to another stockholder. (See The Handbook of Texas Online: Mercer Colony and Mercer.) The certificate is unrecorded by Streeter. Ron Tyler notes the certificate in their preliminary study of Texas lithographs of the nineteenth century. See also Items 161 and 162, below, for other documents of the Mercer colony. Donated to the Texas State Historical Association by Shirley & Clifton Caldwell.
($750-1,000)

152. [MAP]. [MORSE, Sidney E.]. Texas. [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1844]. Cerographic map, original color. 12.6 x 13.7 cm (5 x 5-1/4 inches). 1 inch = approximately 100 miles. Light browning.
        Page 37 from Morse's A System of Geography for the Use of Schools. On the verso (p. 38) is another cerographic map, Mexico Guatimala and the West Indies. Descriptive text on both pages on Texas, Missouri, Illinois, and Mexico. Like Gregg's map in Commerce of the Prairies (see Item 145 herein), the map is an early example of cerography, or wax engraving. Sidney Morse and Samuel Breese invented cerography, which they began using in 1839. Morse tried to keep the process secret, but it became widely used in mapmaking, especially after Rand, McNally used wax engraving in 1872. Wax engraving remained an important map printing technique until the mid-twentieth century. Unlike engraving or lithography, which demanded the laborious drawing of a negative image, cerography allowed the image to be drawn directlythe positive image is drawn onto a wax-covered plate that is then used as a mold from which a master printing plate is cast by an electroplating process. Images could be easily cut into the soft wax layer using very little pressure. Various sized gravers could be used, commercial tools could stamp letters directly into the wax, even wheels with designs were used to draw boundary lines. See Woodward, David, The All-American Map: Wax Engraving and Its Influence on Cartography (Chicago, 1977).
($100-200)

153. [MAP]. MORSE, Sidney E. & Samuel Breese. Texas. New York, 1844. Cerographic map. 39 x 30.7 cm (15-3/8 x 12-1/8 inches). Scale: 1 inch = approximately 40 miles. Matted. Minor roughness at lower paper edge.
        Verso: Map of the Californias, by T. J. Farnham (1845). Phillips, Atlases 1228 (variant with Californias on verso). The map covers Texas west to the 101st meridian, and the border with Mexico is firmly anchored at the Rio Grande, with the large San Patricio County extending inland to Laredo. The California map is listed by Wheat, Gold Region 20 & Transmississippi West 498. See also Plains & Rockies IV:107. See Item 152 preceding, for a description of cerography.
($500-1,000)

154. [MAP]. OLNEY, Jesse. Map of North America to Illustrate Olney's School Geography. [Hartford]: D. F. Robinson, 1844. Engraved map, original color. 26.8 x 22 cm (10-1/2 x 8-5/8 inches). Scale not stated. Chips and stains in blank margins.
        Texas is shown as a republic with its larger territorial claims extending from the Rio Grande to the Arkansas River. Oregon Territory extends to 54°40' North latitude.
($50-100)

155. [MAP]. OLNEY, Jesse. Map of the South Western and Part of the Western States to Illustrate Olney's School Geography. [Hartford]: D. F. Robinson, 1844. Engraved map, original full color. 44.5 x 26.9 cm (17-1/2 x 10-5/8 inches). Scale not stated. A few stains in blank margins, light age toning.
        Although dated 1844, the map shows the elusive Spring Creek County, created by the Texas Congress in 1841 and abolished by the Texas Supreme Court in 1842. Eastern Texas is shown as far west as Washington and Austin Counties.
($50-100)

156. [MAP]. OLNEY, Jesse. Map of the United States, Canada, Texas & Part of Mexico. To Illustrate Olney's School Geography. [Hartford]: D. F. Robinson, 1844. Engraved map, original full color. 26.6 x 44.3 cm (10-1/2 x 17-1/2 inches). Scale not stated. Table of distances covering the Great Basin. Short split at center fold, corners chipped, soiled and with age toning, ink stain on verso.
        Day, Maps of Texas 129. Texas has its border on the Rio Grande extending northward along the Guadalupe Mountains east of the Pecos.
($50-100)

1845

157. [MAP]. [BRADFORD, Thomas Gamaliel]. United States. N.p., ca. 1845. Engraved map, original outline coloring in red and green. 19.4 x 25.5 cm (7-5/8 x 10 inches). Scale: 1 inch = approximately 300 miles. Blank margins browned, old repairs to blank margins.
        Plate number 62 from a small Bradford atlas. Colored outline border represents Texas as a state, with its southern boundary at the Rio Grande, but its western boundary at about the 100th meridian. The map also has engraved differences from the earlier 1835 issue: The largely empty Far West remains unchanged, but in the central portion names have been updated (Arkansas replaces Arkansaw Territory, Iowa replaces Sioux District).
($100-200)

158. [BOOK]. GREEN, Thomas J[efferson]. Journal of the Texian Expedition against Mier; Subsequent Imprisonment of the Author; His Sufferings, and Final Escape from the Castle of Perote. With Reflections upon the Present Political and Probable Future Relations of Texas, Mexico, and the United States.... New York: Harper & Brothers, 1845. xiv [3] 18-487 pp., 11 engraved plates, 2 maps: (1) Plan of Mier. The Texian Camp (14.6 x 25.4 cm; 5-1/8 x 10 inches: scale not stated; lower right: Eng^d. by W. Kemble, N.Y.); (2) Ground Plan of the Castle of Perote, Drawn by Charles M'Laughlin, One of the Mier Prisoners (14 x 20.1 cm; 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches; scale not stated). 8vo, modern dark green cloth, spine gilt lettered. Occasional mild foxing and staining. Faint embossed stamp on title.
        First edition. Basic Texas Books 80: "The most important account of the tragic Texan expedition against Mier and the drawing of the black beans, this is also one of the most vitriolic Texas books.... The book recounts the abortive expedition in 1842 under William S. Fisher and Thomas J. Green into Mexico after the withdrawal of the Somervell Expedition." Dobie, p. 55: "He lived in wrath and wrote with fire." Graff 1643: "One of the most exciting accounts.... As a participant Green was able to write a vivid and terrifying tale. He was particularly bitter toward Sam Houston and believed Houston was responsible for the deaths of those Americans shot as brigands." Library of Congress, Texas Centennial Exhibition 123, citing the plate "Escape from the Castle of Perote." Howes G371. Rader 1670. Raines, p. 98. Streeter 1581 & p. 329 (selected as one of the top books for a Texas collection): "The unauthorized so-called Mier expedition into Mexico...by a group of hot-headed Texans...when one out of ten of the captured Texans was immediately shot."
        According to the title-page, the well-executed plates were engraved after drawings taken from life by Charles McLaughlin, one of the Mier Expedition prisoners. Dr. Kelsey includes this book in his preliminary survey of Texas engravings. W. Kemble, the engraver of one of the maps in the book (Plan of Mier. The Texian Camp), also engraved the map of Texas that appeared in Kendall's Narrative of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition (see Martin & Martin 34).
($400-800)

159. [BOOK]. GREGG, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies: Or the Journal of a Santa Fe Trader During Eight Expeditions across the Great Western Prairies, and a Residence of Nearly Nine Years in Northern Mexico. New York: Langley, 1845. 323 [24, ads] + 318 [322-327] pp. (319-321 omitted in numbers as indicated by Streeter), 6 engraved plates, 2 engraved maps, including cerographic engraved map shaded in original green: A Map of the Indian Territory Northern Texas and New Mexico Showing the Great Western Prairies (31 x 37.5 cm; 12-1/8 x 14-3/4 inches; scale not stated; below neat line: Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1844 by Sidney E. Morse and Samuel Breese...). 2 vols., 12mo, original gilt pictorial blind-stamped brown cloth. Spinal extremities neatly reinforced with matching cloth. Slight wear and fading to binding. Mild age-toning and a few stains. Other than one old tape repair to verso of map and one clean split to map, very fine, with excellent coloring.
        Second edition, second issue, with added glossary and index (first edition, New York, 1844). See Items 145 & 146 herein. Howes G401. Plains & Rockies IV:108:5. Rittenhouse 255: "A cornerstone of all studies on the Santa Fe trail." Streeter 1502C. Wheat, Transmississippi West 482 & I:186: "A cartographic landmark."
($600-1,200)

160. [MAP]. ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. Map of North America, Showing the Relative Positions of Texas and Oregon with the United States. London: Illustrated London News, 1845. Engraved map, original outline coloring. 18.4 x 22.7 cm (7-1/4 x 9 inches). Scale not stated. Slight discoloration.
        Texas is shown with its border following the Rio Grande up to the Arkansas River. The border between the United States and British America follows the British claims in Oregon. Woodcut illustration of "Fort Tamatave, Madagascar, the Scene of the Late Affray" at top. Page 228, extracted from The Illustrated London News, October 11th, 1845.
($50-100)

"DALLAS IS SHOWN ON THE MAP, PERHAPS FOR THE FIRST TIME"—(STREETER)

161. [COLONIZATION CONTRACT WITH MAP: MERCER COLONY]. MERCER, Charles Fenton. The Contract of Colonization, of Charles F. Mercer, et al. with the President of Texas, January 29, 1844. [New Orleans, 1845]. 4 pp. large folio folder with contract with Texas on p. [1], agreement with stockholder on p. [2] (both printed in double column), lithographed map with original hand-colored shading (yellow) and outline (blue) on p. [3]: Map of the Mercer Colony in Texas. May 1^st 1845. [In lower right corner, above neat line]: Fishbourne's Lithog. 46, Canal St. [New Orleans] (lithograph map, 22 x 23.4 cm; 8-5/8 x 9-1/4 inches; scale: 1 inch = 20 miles). Creased where formerly folded, mild age-toning to blank upper portion on p. [4]. A very fine and handsome copy of a great rarity, the coloring of the map fresh and beautiful. The map bears three small ink inscriptions: notation of "raft" on Trinity River, addition of the exact date of the 5^th (Mercer) grant, and correction of the date of the 2^nd (Peters) grant.
        First printing of an important colonization imprint relating to early settlement of Northeast Texas, with the first large-scale map of East Texas and perhaps the earliest printed map to name and locate Dallas. Streeter 1594: "The map which is on the large scale of 20 miles to an inch is of great interest, as it shows the boundaries of the first three grants to the Peters group, and of the fifth grant of January 29, 1844, to Mercer. Dallas is shown on the map, perhaps for the first time." Streeter locates only three copies of this first issue; there are four issues of the contract, but only two of them have the map; Streeter locates only one copy of the other issue with the map. According to Streeter, Theodore Garnett testifies that the map and contract were distributed by Mercer (his uncle) in May 1845. Dallas had been founded by John Neely Bryan on the east bank of the Trinity in November 1841. The town site was about 10 miles west of the Mercer Colony in the Peters tract.
        Mercer Colony, one of the largest empresario contracts in Texas, was located roughly between the Brazos and Sabine Rivers, east and south of the Peters Colony. The map shows the parcel as an inverted "L" about 110 x 130 miles in extent. The contract was possible under a statute enacted by the Texas Congress in February 1841, which restored the policy of empresario grants that had existed under Mexico. President Sam Houston granted Charles Mercer his contract on January 29, 1844. Mercer's contract was always controversial, particularly because Houston granted it after vetoing a bill that took away presidential authority to grant such contracts, and the Congress then overrode Houston's veto one day after the Mercer contract was granted. See The Handbook of Texas Online (Mercer Colony & Mercer, Charles Fenton). See also Item 161A, below, which this contract originally accompanied, and Item 151 above, an original share certificate for the Texas Association, or Mercer Colony.
($30,000-60,000)

161A. [PROMOTIONAL BROADSIDE & AUTOGRAPH LETTER: MERCER COLONY]. MERCER, Charles Fenton. Lot of 4 items: (1) Autograph letter signed, to John Y. Mason, Attorney General of the United States, dated at National Hotel, [Washington, D.C.], October 25, 1845. 3 pp., 4to. (2) Texas Colonization. [Printed promotional broadside. Text commences:] The subscriber offers, on behalf of the Texas Association, 320 acres of Land...for $8, to any family who may settle thereon from any part of the United States, or Europe, by the first day of July, 1846.... Charles Fenton Mercer, New Orleans, La., August 20th, 1845, Original Grantee and Chief Agent of the Texas Association.... [New Orleans, 1845]. 4to. (3) Newspaper clipping of Mason's letter to the editor of the Alexandria Gazette, dated September 1, 1845. (4) Plain folded envelope addressed to Mason. The material was folded to go into the envelope, so each piece is creased where formerly folded. The material is also age-toned. Generally fine.
        A unique group of material on empresario Mercer and the Texas Association (or Mercer Colony). These items relate to Items 151 and 161 above. In his letter to United States Attorney General John Y. Mason, Mercer responds to the latter's expressed interest in the colony, enclosing the broadside and clipping as well as the colonization contract and its map offered in the previous lot (Item 161). Mercer assures Mason that the accompanying papers will supply all desired information on his grant. He directs Mason's attention to the yellow areas on the map which delineate not only his primary grant of 8,000 square miles east and south of the Peters Colony but also 2,200 square miles within that Colony on which Mercer expected to receive colonization rights when the Peters Colony failed to fulfill its contract (at the time the Peters Colony was falling short of its required number of immigrants). John Young Mason (1799-1859), congressman, jurist, and Secretary of the Navy under Tyler, was the only member of Tyler's cabinet retained by Polk, who appointed him Attorney General (DAB, VI: pp. 369-70).
        The enclosed printed letter to the editor, Mercer explains, "is a reply to two attacks upon my contract with the Texian Republic," particularly that of Branch T. Archer, "the virulent enemy of Gen[era]l Houston [and] former secretary of War under Pres[iden]t Lamar's administration. I deem the reply and so do my council in Texas and those of my associates from whom I have heard lately, a complete vindication of my contract from both assaults. That of Doctor Archer has been repeated with augmented malice. Where his temper and hostility to Houston is known and his present or late habits of intemperance, any further notice of his attack on my grant would be altogether unnecessary nor should I have made this publication I send you but that I had overrated the effect of his letter to the Editor of the Union." Mercer concludes by advising Mason to alert any of his friends with large families to provide for their younger sons by taking advantage of the bargain prices and terms for shares in his Colony.
        First printing of the rare Texas Colonization broadside relating to the Mercer Colony, with one of the earliest mentions in print of the establishment of Dallas. Streeter 1598 (locating one copy in Kentucky): "The prospectus states that one of the conditions of the offer is that the settler must build a comfortable cabin on the land and cultivate not less than 15 acres for three years. It also states that after July 1, 1846, only 200 acres will be given each family.... After reporting that it is prepared to set up a town on the Trinity, below the East Fork, it continues, 'and one has already been established in the Western Colony, at Dallas, three miles below the mouth of the West Fork.'"
($2,000-4,000)

162. [MAP]. NEW YORK HERALD. Map of Texas and the Disputed Territory in The New York Herald, Vol. XI, No. 143, Whole No. 4115, September 1, 1845 (4 pp., double folio, 6 columns per page). Engraved map. 19.8 x 24.2 cm (7-3/4 x 9-1/2 inches). Scale not stated. Newspaper creased where folded (a few minor voids at folds), mild foxing and spotting.
        A crude cartographic production to accompany an article on "Our Texan Claims," commencing: "Next to a plan of the seat of war, a Map of Texas is important and useful, in order to give the public a clear view of our claims and rights at the South. We have had these maps engraved at great expense[!]. There are points in dispute with Mexico affecting the annexation of Texasone the acquisition of that republic, the other the settlement of the boundary line to the satisfaction of both nations.We have first to settle, by the ratification by Congress of the recent Treaty, and perchance by a battle or two with the Mexicans, whether or not we are to have Texas. We are then to arrange with Mexico, either by a negotiation with dollars or cannon balls, whether the Rio del Norte or the Nueces is to be the line of demarcation.... We can probably obtain all we want for a few thousand dollars." I suppose the tone of the article documents what might be called Yankee ingenuity. Included are early dispatches from the Texas front as the Mexican-American War opened, including movements at Corpus Christi, arrival of Capt. G. L. Ringgold, last days of the Texas Republic, etc.
($200-400)

163. [BOOK]. PUTNAM, George Palmer. American Facts: Notes and Statistics Relative to the...United States of America. London: Wiley and Putnam, 1845. 292 [16, ads] pp., frontispiece portrait of George Washington (engraved by A. B. Durand after Trumball's portrait), 3 engraved portraits (James Fenimore Cooper, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster), plates, engraved map (by James Wyld) with original color, shading, and outlining: Map of the United States of America (37.6 x 52.5 cm; 14-7/8 x 20-3/4 inches; scale: 1 inch = approximately 150 miles; inset of Great Britain on same scale). 12mo, original blind-stamped brown cloth (rebacked in brown cloth, fresh endpapers). Corners restored and a few neat repairs. Map with one short split at a fold, short tear where map joins book block, otherwise very fine, with attractive pastel coloring. Printed errata sheet tipped in explaining the absence of two plates (Mercy's Dream and a portrait of Websterformer absent, latter present) and offering to supply them to anyone who requests them (Howes notes that book sometimes contains only three plates).
        First edition. Howes P658. The map by British cartographer James Wyld is beautifully engraved and delicately colored. Texas captures the viewer's eye, outlined in pastel terracotta in the Emory configuration. Of the plates, the author remarks: "The portraits in this volume scarcely do full justice, either to their subjects or to the original engraver; but as specimens of a new process, by which they have been transferred or re-engraved, in a few days, from ordinary and defective copies of the American prints, they are somewhat remarkable. The portrait of Washington, by Stuart, would have been preferred to the military one, here copied; but as an engraving, the latter was better suited for the experiment."
($200-400)

"ONE OF THE QUARTET OF GREAT OVERLAND NARRATIVES"—HEASTON

164. [BOOK]. WILKES, George & Peter H. Burnett. The History of Oregon, Geographical and Political, Embracing an Analysis of the Old Spanish Claims, the British Pretensions, the United States Title; an Account of the Present Condition and Character of the Country, and a Thorough Examination of the Project of a National Rail Road, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, to Which is Added a Journal of the Events of the Celebrated Emigrating Expedition of 1843; Containing an Account of the Route from Missouri to Astoria, a Table of Distances, and the Physical and Political Description of the Territory, and its Settlements, by a Member of the Recently Organized Oregon Legislature [Peter H. Burnett].... New York: William H. Colyer, 1845. 127 [1, errata] pp., folding engraved map on thin tissue paper: untitled map of the Oregon Country northwest from Fort Simpson to south of Fort Vancouver (21 x 28 cm; 8-1/4 x 11 inches; scale not stated). 8vo, original upper blue printed wrapper (trimmed and mounted on matching archival paper; about two inches of lower ornamental border provided in expert facsimile). Very fine condition.
        First edition. Eberstadt 136:652: [quoting Huntington 982]: "Excessively rare" [quoting Washington Historical Society Quarterly]: "One of the rarest and least known of books." Graff 4657: "Wilkes was a crusading journalist who sponsored causes which kept him in hot water.... This is his brief on the rights of the United States to the Oregon Country." Howes W418: "Contains journal of the 1843 emigration expedition to Oregon kept by Peter Burnett, later governor of California." Plains & Rockies IV:119:1. Smith 110005. Streeter Sale 3143: "This and the Overton Johnson narrative published a year later, in 1846, are the only known contemporaneous accounts of the 1843 emigration published within a few years of the event." Wheat, Transmississippi West 501: "The map was said to be taken from one of the publications of Thomas Falconer. Shows 'Boundary between GB & US' west to the mountains, and 'Route of Lewis & Clarke [sic] 1803.' There are errors, as 'Streat' (Great) Snake River. On the whole, this is a crude effort." Michael Heaston (Catalogue 18) calls this work "one of the great quartet of Overland Narratives, the others being the journals of Leonard, Hastings, and Johnson-Winter."
($2,500-4,500)

165. [MAP]. WILLIAMS, C. S. Map of Texas from the Most Recent Authorities. Philadelphia: C. S. Williams, 1845. Engraved map, original full color. 21.4 x 38.5 cm (12-3/8 x 15-1/8 inches). Scale: 1 inch = approximately 50 miles. Inset map: Texas North of Red River. Five small tears at top margin where extracted from atlas, light browning.
        Plate 35, extracted from Mitchell's A New Universal Atlas.... Day, Maps of Texas, p. 40. Phillips, Atlases 6103n. Taliaferro, p. 125.
($500-1,000)

1846

SUPERB COPY OF BURR’S 1846 POCKET MAP OF TEXAS WITH CHANGES RELATING TO THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR

166. [POCKET MAP]. BURR, David H. The State of Texas, 1836 - 1845. New York: J. H. Colton, 1846. Pocket map, folded into original 16mo brown blind-stamped cloth pocket folder, printed paper label on upper cover: MAP OF TEXAS. Engraved map, original outline color (blue, green, rose, yellow), the disputed area of the Nueces Strip and Eastern New Mexico shaded in full maize. 44.6 x 53.4 cm (17-1/2 x 21 inches), scale: 1 inch = approximately 50 miles. Inset at lower left: Plan of the Port of Galveston (irregularly shaped, but approximately 15.2 x 12.5 cm; 6 x 5 inches). Decorative line border. At right: Table of distances, symbols for roads, and key for interpreting state, county, and patent lines. A few inconsequential, tiny breaks at folds, otherwise superb, about as fine a copy of a Burr map as one might ever hope to encounter, particularly in the original pocket folder and with the fragile printed paper label in near perfect condition. Strong original outline coloring. Ink gift inscription to Fannie P. Nephler(?) in Baton Rouge, from her grandmother, dated August 12, 1879. Preserved in a dark brown recessed clamshell box. Exceedingly rare, even more so than the various issues of Stephen F. Austin's map of Texas.
        Fifth edition of Burr's landmark map of Texas, extensively revised, corrected, and augmented to reflect increased knowledge of the Texas coastline and the Rio Grande Valley arising from early events in the Mexican-American War (changes and revisions are discussed below). For the first edition of Burr's landmark map of Texas, see Item 73 above. Martin & Martin 30n: "[Burr's 1833] map was reprinted in 1834 and in 1835 with only slight modifications, and again in 1845, showing Texas as a state in the Union. As a geographer, Burr is perhaps best remembered for his 1839 American Atlas, but his cartographic productions of Texas, now quite rare, served as a reputable chronicle of the progress made in the discovery of modern Texas." Streeter 1134n (listing four editions, 1833, 1834, 1835, and 1845): "The Burr map of 1833 is the first large scale map of Texas.... The Burr map, like the Austin map, is one of the landmarks of Texas"; & p. 329 (designating Burr's 1833 map as one of the six most important maps for a Texas collection). Taliaferro 247 (citing the 1835 issue) & p. 15n (designating Burr's map as important for its contribution to Texas geography as a whole and for providing a "valuable record of the social and political evolution of the state during the crucial years when much of its territory was first settled by a population of European origin").
        The differences between the 1845 and 1846 editions of Burr's map of Texas primarily relate to knowledge of the Rio Grande and the Texas coast, including the following:
        The Rio Grande is better surveyed and shows considerably more undulations. In the 1845 edition, the Rio Grande is called "Rio del Norte or Rio Bravo" but in the 1846 edition it is called "Rio Grande del Norte or Rio Bravo." Changes along the south side of the Rio Grande include: "Boretta" appears near the mouth of the Rio Grande; Matamoras is moved approximately thirty miles downstream from where it was on the 1845 edition and approximately replaces a town previously called "Pardo" on the 1845 edition; on the 1845 edition "Rhinosa" is present, but it appears further downstream on the 1846 edition, at approximately the location that Matamoras occupied on the 1845 edition.
        There are major changes to islands in the Gulf of Mexico: The only island named in the 1845 edition is Galveston. Additional names in the 1846 edition are "Isla de Bayin," "Isla del Padre," "St. Joseph's Island," and "Matagorda Island."
        On the 1846 edition, "Corpus Christi" as a town appears, and the inlet to the bay is named "Corpus Christi Inlet"; on the 1845 edition, this location is called "Copano." In the 1845 edition, Corpus Christi is shown as an inlet into "Espiritu Santo B[ay]." On the 1846 edition, the town "Aransas" first appears. On the 1846 edition, the town Calhoun appears on Matagorda Island at the entrance to Matagorda Bay. It does not appear on the 1845 edition. On the 1846 edition, a new note appears in the Gulf of Mexico: "The country east of the Rio Grande coloured yellow is claimed by both the U.S. & Mexico. -- The old names are retained."
        Fort Brown and Fort Polk are shown in the 1846 edition, but they are not present on the 1845 edition; "Doloros" is present in the 1846 edition, but is not shown on the 1845 edition. Apparently, the present 1846 edition of the Burr map was published sometime after May of 1846; we base this assumption on the following articles in The Handbook of Texas Online on Fort Brown and Fort Polk.
        The Handbook of Texas Online (Fort Brown): "Fort Brown, originally called Fort Texas, was established when Zachary Taylor and the United States forces of occupation arrived on the Rio Grande on March 26, 1846, to establish the river as the southern boundary of Texas. In April 1846 Taylor built an earthen fort of 800 yards perimeter, with six bastions, walls more than nine feet high, a parapet of fifteen feet, and the whole surrounded by a ditch fifteen feet deep and twenty feet wide. Armament was four eighteen-pound guns. The Seventh Infantry, with Company I of the Second Artillery and Company E, Third Artillery, commanded by Maj. Jacob Brown, garrisoned the fort. Mexican troops led by Mariano Arista intercepted United States troops as they brought supplies from Fort Polk at Point Isabel to Fort Brown, leading to the opening battles of the war, Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, fought on May 8 and 9, 1846. On May 9 Major Brown died from injuries received during the bombardment of the fort by Mexican forces in Matamoros. Shortly after his death he was buried within the fortifications, and the post was named in his honor."
        The Handbook of Texas Online (Fort Polk): "In 1840 the government of the Republic of Texas debated the construction of a fort on the north end of Brazos Island in what is now Cameron County, six miles north of the Rio Grande at Brazos Santiago Pass. This installation would not only have controlled navigation through the vital pass between Padre and Brazos islands, but would also have established a Texas military presence in the disputed territory below the Nueces River. Since the site lay 120 miles to the south of the nearest white Texan settlement, however, only nominally in Texas territory and on the site of Brazos de Santiago, a customhouse and outpost of the Mexican army, the planned fort never materialized. But in 1846, with the heightening of international tension after the annexation of Texas to the United States, Maj. Gen. Zachary Taylor's army of observation marched to the Rio Grande and established itself opposite Matamoros, from where it drove the Mexican garrison at Brazos Santiago back across the Rio Grande while converting the Mexican installation to an arsenal. On March 6 Taylor's men established a military depot near the Brazos Santiago arsenal and named it Fort Polk, in honor of the president of the United States."
($60,000-90,000)

167. [MAP]. EATON, J. H. Sketch of the Battle Ground at Palo Alto Texas. May 8^th 1846. [Washington: War Department, 1846]. Lithographed map. 30 x 21.3 cm (11-7/8 x 8-3/4 inches). Scale: 1 inch = 1/3 mile. Two short tears on left margin where removed from volume.
        First printed map of the first battle of the Mexican-American War. Extracted from Zachary Taylor's Report, Message from the President of the United States, Transmitting Official Reports from General Zachary Taylor (Washington: HED209, 1846). Garrett, Mexican-American War, p. 416.
($100-200)

168. [MAP]. EATON, J. H. Sketch of the Battle Ground at Resaca de la Palma Texas May 9^th 1846. [Washington: War Department, 1846]. Lithographed map. 26 x 18.5 cm (10-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches). Fine.
        First printed map of the second battle of the Mexican-American War. Extracted from Zachary Taylor's Report, Message from the President of the United States, Transmitting Official Reports from General Zachary Taylor (Washington: HED209, 1846). Garrett, Mexican-American War, p. 416.
($100-200)

169. [MAP]. [HAVEN, John]. Map of the United States and Mexico including Oregon, Texas, and the Californias. N.p, [1846]. Woodcut map, original full and outline color. 36 x 38.5 cm (14-1/4 x 15-1/4 inches). Scale: 1 inch = approximately 200 miles. Ornamental border of state seals, flanked by two columns of statistical information for each state. States and provinces outlined in color. Minor crease top left, minor stain top right, otherwise very fine.
        A note in Texas states: "The Texians claim as their boundary the Rio del Norte." Wheat, Gold Region 26n; Transmississippi West 513 & p. 40: "A red line following the Platte, Snake and Columbia Rivers to Astoria is labelled 'Great Oregon Railroad' and 'Route of Oregon Emigrants.'"
($750-1,500)

170. [BOOK]. KENDALL, Geo[rge] Wilkins. Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition, Comprising a Description of a Tour through Texas, and across the Great Southwestern Prairies, the Camanche and Caygüa Hunting-Grounds, with an Account of the Sufferings from Want of Food, Losses from Hostile Indians, and Final Capture of the Texans, and Their March, as Prisoners, to the City of Mexico. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1846. [2] xii, [13]-405 + xii [11]-406 pp., 5 engraved plates, engraved map: Texas and Part of Mexico & the United States, Showing the Route of the First Santa Fé Expedition (41 x 29.2 cm; 16-1/8 x 11-1/2 inches; no scale stated; below title: Drawn & Eng^d. by W. Kemble, N. York). 2 vols., 12mo, original dark brown blind-stamped cloth, gilt-pictorial spines (rebacked, original spines preserved). Shelf worn (spinal extremities and edges), one signature in Vol. I loose, occasional mild foxing or age-toning. The Texas map by Kemble is very fine except for a bit of mild foxing. Handsome bookplate of John Thomas Lee (engraved by W. F. Hopson [1916] with map of the New World and iconography on American themes).
        Second American edition (first edition, New York, 1844). Basic Texas Books 116D. Howes K75. Martin & Martin 34: "[The map] stimulated renewed interest in Texas and represented another major step toward the inevitable solution of the Texas question later in the decade." Plains & Rockies IV:110:1. Rader 2157n. Raines, p. 131n: "No Texas library complete without it." Rittenhouse 3478n. Streeter 1515n & p. 329 (citing the first edition as one of the important books for a Texas collection). Wheat, Transmississippi West 483: "Warren...outlines the course of the expedition, and remarks, 'The expedition, it is thought, may have been the first to visit the source of Red River, but it furnished no topographical information which could be accurately represented on a map.'" Best account of the ill-fated Republic of Texas 1841 expedition to establish jurisdiction over Santa Fe.
($300-600)

171. [MAP]. MITCHELL, S. Augustus. Map of the State of Texas Engraved to Illustrate Mitchell's School and Family Geography. Philadelphia, 1846. Engraved map, original full color. 26.7 x 20.5 cm (10-1/2 x 8 inches). Scale: 1 inch = approximately 100 miles. Holes at right edge where removed from atlas, light browning on blank margins.
        Day, Maps of Texas, p. 44. Mexican-American War battles of Palo Alto and Palma de la Resaca [sic] are marked with flags.
($150-300)

172. MITCHELL, S. Augustus. Mexico & Guatemala. Philadelphia: S. Augustus Mitchell, 1846. Engraved map, original full coloring. 30.5 x 38.2 cm (12 x 15 inches). Scale: 1 inch = approximately 170 miles. Inset maps: Valley of Mexico (lower left) and Guatemala (upper right). Paper age toned, rough at top edge where removed from atlas.
        From Mitchell's New Universal Atlas. The present map locates the early battles of the Mexican-American War from Palo Alto to Buena Vista. Day, Maps of Texas, p. 43. Wheat, Gold Region 27; Transmississippi West 519 & p. 35.
($100-200)

GRAND WALL MAP OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1846
WITH FULL-SIZE INSET OF
MITCHELL’S NEW MAP OF TEXAS OREGON AND CALIFORNIA

173. [WALL MAP]. MITCHELL, S. Augustus. Mitchell's Reference & Distance Map of the United States by J. H. Young. Philadelphia: S. Augustus Mitchell, 1846 (copyright date 1833). Large engraved wall map on 9 conjoined sheets, full color and brilliant rose outlining, mounted on modern cartographic linen, original black wooden rollers. 135 x 176.5 cm (53 x 69-1/2 inches). Scale: 1 inch = 25 miles. Large ornamental lettering in title. Wide ornate vine border. Large untitled engraving (approximately 19 x 33 cm; 7-1/2 x 13 inches) of eagle on a seashell (grasping olive branch in his left talon and arrows in his right talon, flanked by the capitol at Washington and Philadelphia), attributed to: W^m. Mason. Inset engraved map in full color at lower right: A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining. Compiled from the Most Recent Authorities. Philadelphia Published by S. Augustus Mitchell...1846 (copyright 1845) (52.7 x 48.8 cm; 20-3/4 x 19 x 1/4 inches; scale: 1 inch = 100 miles; table of distances at lower left, along with explanation of map and emigrant route from Missouri to Oregon). Seven other inset maps: southern Florida, northern Maine, vicinity map of Rochester, Falls of Niagara, Albany, Baltimore & Washington, and Charleston. Professionally restored (old varnish removed, expert infilling of lost pigmentation, some tears and splits neatly repaired). Soiled or with residue of earlier varnish at top. Some mild foxing.
        Wall map issue of Mitchell's New Map of Texas, Oregon, and California. This grandiose, Manifest-Destiny map published during the Mexican-American War is extremely detailed and on a large scale, showing every county, township, and parish, and hundreds of U.S. towns. Phillips (America, p. 848) cites the 1845 edition, which apparently did not have the important inset map (A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California. For a Texas and Western collection, the inset map is the most interesting feature of this rare and wonderful wall map. The inset map is better known by its pocket map incarnation (see Item 174 following). The question arises: Which came first, the wall map inset version of Mitchell's Texas, Oregon, and California, or the pocket map version? The two maps appear to be engraved identically, except for the added ornamental border on the pocket map. The hand-coloring varies between the two, but hand-coloring might well vary. Furthermore, in the present copy of the wall map, it is entirely possible that the later infilling of pigment was not exactly as the map first appeared. In discussing the pocket map issue, Rumsey in his online map collection (www.davidrumsey.com) comments that Mitchell first used the inset in this Reference & Distance Map of the United States in 1846.
        Mitchell declares in the advertising for the firm's maps that appears in the text of the pocket map version (Item 174 below) that he has created a "greatly improved edition" of this wall map and proudly points out its large size ("six feet two inches from East to West, and four feet ten inches from North to South"). Wheat does not mention the wall map appearance of the Texas, Oregon, and California map (see Gold Region 29 & Transmississippi West 520). In 1999, Christie's sold a copy of the 1849 edition of Mitchell's wall map (also revised from the 1845 appearance, like our copy, but to 1848, rather than 1846, as in our copy). The Christie's 1848 copy fetched $15,105.
($8,000-16,000)

POCKET MAP ISSUE OF MITCHELL’S TEXAS, OREGON & CALIFORNIA

174. [POCKET MAP]. MITCHELL, S. Augustus. A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining. Compiled from the Most Recent Authorities. Philadelphia: S. Augustus Mitchell, 1846. Pocket map & guide (Accompaniment to Mitchell's New Map of Texas, Oregon and California.... 46 pp.), folded into original 16mo green embossed leather, gilt-lettering on upper cover: TEXAS, OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. Engraved map, original full and outline color, ornamental border shaded in pink. 56.2 x 51.6 cm. (22-1/8 x 20-3/8 inches). Scale: 1 inch = approximately 15 miles. Table of distances at lower left, along with explanation of map and emigrant route from Missouri to Oregon). Light wear to covers, a few short splits at folds (no losses), a fine copy. Early book plate of the Historical Society of Southern California.
        First printing of a landmark map of the American West (for a wall map version that came out the same year, see Item 173, preceding). Baughman, Kansas in Maps, p. 35: "A deservedly popular map of the West." Graff 2841. Howes M685. Martin & Martin 36: "One of the first widely distributed maps showing Texas as a state in the U.S." Plains & Rockies IV:122b. Schwartz & Ehrenberg, p. 276: "Important map...depicted the western political situation on the eve of the Mexican War. A composite map, it judiciously incorporated the recent work of Nicollet, Wilkes, Frémont, and Emory. Both the Oregon Trail and the 'Caravan route to Santa Fe' are included." Wheat, Gold Region 29; Transmississippi West 520, p. 35: "This map represents a great step forward [utilizing] the recent explorations that had bounded and determined the nature of the Great Basin. The Texas claim to a western boundary up the Rio Grande is here shown, with the northern panhandle extending all the way to the 42nd parallel, following Emory's map of Texas."
        In the advertisements at the end of the text, Mitchell declares: "This Map represents that part of North America which extends from lat. 26° to lat. 56° N., and from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. It includes the State of Texas, Oregon as claimed by the United States, and the whole of Upper California, together with the adjoining regions of the State and Territory of Iowa, the Missouri Territory, the Indian Territory, and a considerable portion of Mexico and Old California, and some part of British America."
($8,000-$16,000)

175. [POCKET MAP]. MITCHELL, S. Augustus & J. H. YOUNG. Mitchell's National Map of the American Republic or United States of North America. Philadelphia: S. Augustus Mitchell, 1846 (copyright 1845). Pocket map & guide, 46 pp. (text), folded into original 16mo embossed tan calf, gilt lettered on upper cover: MITCHELL'S NATIONAL MAP AND ROUTE BOOK. Engraved map (by J. H. Brightly), original full and outline color. 62.1 x 85 cm (24-3/8 x 33-1/2 inches). Scale: 1 inch = approximately 50 miles. Inset maps: Map of the State of Texas; Map of Oregon Territory (with present-day northern border); Map of the Southern Part of Florida; and Map of Northeastern Boundary of the United States According to the Treaty of 1842. Elaborately lettered title. Charts of statistical information. Mounted section of brass cover clasp present, but hinged section absent. Mild to moderate staining and a few clean splits at creases.
        In the inset map of Texas, colored tan and with green outlining, a wide Panhandle reaches to the Arkansas River and encompasses eastern New Mexico, which with the land along the Rio Grande corridor is labeled: Unexplored Region. In the advertising section of the Mitchell's New Map of Texas, Oregon and California (see preceding entry), Mitchell describes this map as follows: "The National Map of the American Republic, or United States of America, is engraved on four sheets, and is unequalled for the beauty and distinctness of its lettering and Engraving, and the richness of its colouring. This Map measures four feet two inches from East to West, by three feet three inches from North to South. Surrounding the general Map are smaller Maps of thirty-two of the principal Cities and towns, with their Vicinities; also, other useful matter. The Subscriber has employed in the Compilation and Engraving of the above Maps, &c., the most able Artists in their respective departments in the United States, and has aimed to attain in their execution the highest degree of accuracy and elegance; and he is persuaded that those who may examine them will be satisfied that, in all the essentials of faithful geographical representations of what they are professed to be, these work are not excelled by any similar productions elsewhere published."
($750-1,500)