1827 Carey and Lea Map of the Americas

Matthew Carey (January 28, 1760 - September 16, 1839) was a Dublin born publisher who established himself in Philadelphia in the late 18th and early 19th century. A young man of socially progressive views, Carey's first known publication, produced when he was but 17 years old, was a pamphlet criticizing dueling. Another pamphlet, issued in the same year, attacked the Irish penal code. Shortly afterwards, in 1779, legal issues, possibly arising from his liberal political activism, forced Carey to flee to Paris. In Paris, Carey had the good fortune to befriend the visiting American diplomat and founding father, Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790). As an Irishman chafing under the rule of England, Carey sympathized with and admired the American revolutionary. The liberally minded pair struck up a lifelong friendship and Carey was hired to work at Franklin's press in Passy, France. A year later, Carey returned to Ireland and resumed his politically provocative publishing career with The Freemans's Journal and The Volunteer's Journal. It didn't take long for political pressure to once again force Carey from Ireland - this time to America (1784). Although largely without funds, Carey convinced Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757 - 1834), who he knew from Franklin's Paris circle, to lend him funds to establish a new publishing concern in Philadelphia. Despite this loan, Carey's firm remained under financed and opened on a shoestring budget. It was most likely his limited budget that led Carey to some of his most important publishing innovations. At the time cartographic publishing was dominated by large printing houses in London and Paris where most, if not all, of the work was completed in house. Without the finances to emulate this large publishing houses, Carey was forced to outsource much of his publishing work. This set the stage for subsequent American publishers who, in order to compete effectively with European firms, relied on an often bewildering network of alliances and collaborations. Carey was also a master of republishing many of his own maps in multiple different atlases and formats to maximize their profitability. His most important work is without a doubt the 1795 issue of the American Atlas the first atlas to be published in America. Carey died in 1839 but was succeeded by his son Henry Charles Carey (1793 - 1879) who, in partnership with his brother-in-law Isaac Lea (1792 - 1886), published numerous important maps and atlases under the Carey and Lea, Lea Brothers, and Lea and Blanchard imprints. More by this mapmaker...

Isaac Lea (March 4, 1792 - December 8, 1886) was an American publisher, geologist, and conchologist. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Lea was born into a Quaker family. In an uncharacteristic move for a Quaker, Lea gave up the Quaker belief in pacifism, thus losing his claim to being a member of the Society of Friends, and joined the 7th Company of the 24th Pennsylvania Militia to fight in the War of 1812. Little is known about Lea's life after the war. He married Frances Ann Carey (1799 - 1873), the daughter of the successful publisher Mathew Carey (1760 - 1839) on March 8, 1821, with whom he had three children, one of which died in infancy. After Mathew Carey retired from publishing in 1825, Lea partnered with Carey's son Henry Charles Carey (1793 - 1879), and formed the publishing house Carey and Lea. Carey and Lea became one of the most successful publishing houses in America, publishing, among others, American editions of the works of Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper, The Encyclopedia Americana and a dictionary of German lexicon. After Henry Carey retired c. 1838, Lea continued publishing with William A. Blanchard, who had been promoted to partner in the Carey and Lea firm in 1833, under the imprint of Lea and Blanchard. Eventually, Lea's two sons Henry Charles Lea (September 19, 1825 - October 24, 1909) and Mathew Carey Lea (1823 - 1897) took over the publishing firm and changed its hame to Lea Brothers, after Isaac Lea decided to retire to dedicate himself to his scientific pursuits. Lea devoted his scientific study to natural history, with particular interest in freshwater and land mollusks, which he studied for fifty years. Learn More...

James Hamilton Young (December 18, 1792 - c. 1870) was a Scottish-American draughtsman, engraver, and cartographer active in Philadelphia during the first half of the 19th century. Young was born in Avondale, Lanark, Scotland and emigrated to the United States sometime before 1817. Young was a pioneer in American steel plate engraving, a process superior to copper plate engraving due to the increased durability of steel. His earliest known maps date to about 1817, when Young was 25. At the time he was partnered with William Kneass (1780 - 1840), as Kneass, Young and Company, an imprint that was active from 1817 to 1820. He then partnered with with George Delleker, publishing under the imprint of Young and Delleker, active from 1822 to 1823. Young engraved for numerous cartographic publishers in the Philadelphia area, including Anthony Finley, Charles Varle, and Samuel Augustus Mitchell, among others. His most significant work includes maps engraved for Anthony Finley and later Samuel Augustus Mitchell. Mitchell proved to be Young's most significant collaborator. The pair published numerous maps from about 1831 well into the 1860s. Young retired sometime in the mid to late 1860s. In 1840 he registered a patent for an improved system of setting up typography for printing. ˆˆ Learn More...