1859 Colton / Ondarza Folding Wall Map of Bolivia - a seminal map!

A magnificent and important map of extreme significance, this is J. H. Colton and Juan Ondarza Lara's great 1859 national map of Bolivia. This map is highly significant and influential on multiple levels. First, it is the largest and most important map of Bolivia to appear in the 19th century. Second, it is the second national map produced by an American commercial publisher, J. H. Colton, at the behest of a foreign government. Third, (and unfortunately) Colton was never paid for this map, which forced him into bankruptcy in 1859 and thus into a business arrangement with A. J. Johnson, whose use of Colton's map plates catalyzed his rise to become, for a time, the world's largest map publisher.

The Map Itself

The map is a titanic production resulting from surveys completed between 1842 and 1858 by Juan Ondarza, Juan Mariano Mujia, and to a lesser extent, Lucio Camacho. Presented in Spanish, it covers all of Bolivia as it then stood, extending from the Rio Yavari to the Rio Madera, west to the Pacific, south as far as Puerto Copiapo, east to the confluence of the Rio Bermenjo and Rio Paraguay. Topography is rendered in hachure and the map is color coded by regional political divisions.

The First Scientific Map of Bolivia

According to Lawlor,

When Bolivia gained its independence, the country was little more than a grab bag of warring regions. Self-rule caught it unprepared. It lacked political institutions, a governing class, a working constitution. Only the military could preserve the peace, and so it happened that he who ran the army ran the country. (Lawlor 1989: 137-38).

Military men have always been quick to recognize the importance of cartography and Bolivia's military dictators, the caudillos, realized an accurate map was the first step in consolidating and centralizing power. The first national map of Bolivia was issued in 1843 by the French surveyor Felipe Bertres (Mapa Corografico de la Republica de Bolivia, 1 : 2400000, Arrowsmith: London), but lacking actual survey work, was rife with error. Even before Bertres published his map, the military surveyors Ondarza and Mujia were dispatched to complete a full scientific survey. This was the first concerted effort to produce a detailed trigonometrical survey of Bolivia. The work, which took some 16 years, was described by Ondarza,

Strewn with immense, colossal, and terrible dangers, having to cross the country from one end to another, through primeval forests, wilderness, deep valleys and unhealthy, high, and inaccessible mountain ranges and frigid, raging rivers and finally compromising life apart from the savage tribes with whom we daily saw open struggle.

Labor inmensa, colosal y sembrada de terribles peligros, teniendo que recorrer el país de un confín a otro, a través de selvas vírgenes, desiertas, vegas profundas y malsanas, cordilleras altas e inaccesibles y frígidas, ríos caudalosos y en fin comprometiendo la vida, aparte de las tribus salvajes que a diario se veían en lucha abierta con ellos.

Political Instability in Bolivia

While Ondarza was busy completing the national survey, a pro-civilian 1857 military coup d'etat established José María Linares (1808 - 1861) as Bolivia's new president. A progressive leader who anticipated a bright future for Bolivia, Linares enthusiastically supported Ondarza's survey and pushed for its publication in the form of a grand-format national map. On March 8th 1858, Ondarza was sent by the Linares government on a tour of Europe and the United States to contract publishers capable of consolidating the massive survey into a single published work.

Colton, Meet Bolivia!

In New York, Ondarza found his man in J. H. Colton, then the largest publisher of maps in the United States. For quality and price, Ondarza determined Colton's work to be superior to European competitors. After some negotiation, on the September 21, 1858, Ondarza contracted Colton to engrave and print 'artistically and in the best manner' 10,000 copies of the map for 25,000 dollars (roughly equivalent to 750,000 USD today), 2,000 of which were paid outright as a deposit, the remainder to be remitted by the Bolivian government upon delivery of the finished maps. Colton took to the project with enthusiasm and, within the year, working hand-in-hand with Ondarza, produced a spectacular wall-sized map, which was printed, colorized by hand, then dissected and laid down onto linen in 36 panels - as here.

Troubles in Transit

In 1859, Colton shipped 2000 maps from the initial print run to Bolivia where they were well received and sold at 12 dollars (about 350 USD today) each. Delivery of the remaining 8000 copies was undertaken by Ondarza, who sailed with them to the city of Arica in Tacna, Bolivia (now Chile). There they languished, locked in the customs warehouse until 1868, when Arica, and the rest of Tacna, was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami (Arica Earthquake of 1868). Some reports suggest that as many as 3000 of these may have escaped destruction to be subsequently sold in La Paz at 5 dollars per map.

Bolivia Refuses to Pay Colton

Meanwhile, despite the overwhelmingly positive reception of the original 2000 maps, the government of Bolivia failed to pay Colton. According to their original agreement, payment was due in March of 1860. There is a Bolivian government resolution dating to May 7 of 1860 ordering payment, but for some reason, no remittance was issued. Subsequently, with constant legal pressure from Colton and his lawyer, Rowan Hinten Helper, some 40 Bolivian legislative resolutions to pay followed, but again and again, no payment was forthcoming. Things became considerably more complicated after January of 1861 when Jose Maria Linares, whose name is on this map, was overthrown by his own minister of war, José María de Achá Valiente (1810 - 1868). Acha committed to pay Colton in installments of 800 dollars per month and most likely was sincere in his intent, but he himself was overthrown by Mariano Melgarejo (1820 -1871) in 1864.

Melgarejo Uses Colton's Map to Give Away the Country

Melgarejo was a brute of a man and perhaps Bolivia's most incompetent caudillo. In one instance, Melgarejo is said to have been presented with a magnificent white horse by the minister of Brazil, most likely Jose Maria da Silva Paranhos (1819 - 1880), the Viscount of Rio Branco. To show his appreciation Melgarejo pulled out a gigantic map of Bolivia, no doubt an example this very map, laid it down on the ground, and tracing the horse's hoof granted all of the land contained within, the modern Brazilian state of Acre, to Brazil. This foolish move resulted in the loss of much of Bolivia's rubber rich Amazon.

Colton Driven into Bankruptcy – Sells out to Johnson

By 1859 Colton, having paid out of pocket for the manufacture some 10,000 of these enormous maps, found himself in a situation of extreme financial hardship and with considerable high-interest debt. Of this Colton writes,

I myself had had to pay seven per cent [interest], and, in some cases, considerably more than seven per cent, for money to sustain me in the very business wherein Bolivia, in consequence of having failed to fulfill her equitable obligations, greatly embarrassed and crippled me.

J. H. Colton and Company appears on the bankruptcy rolls of the 1859 New York Postal Register. At this point, Colton came to an unspecified agreement, presumably in the form of some sort of financial bailout, with Vermont businessmen Alvin J. Johnson and Ross Browning. Colton either licensed or sold his printing plates to the new firm 'Johnson and Browning'. The 1859 issue of Colton's signature publication, the General Atlas gives credit to 'Johnson and Browning'. Subsequently, in 1860, Johnson and Browning issued their own atlas, the first edition of Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas, which identified Colton as the publisher. Johnson's atlas, while making use of the Colton map plates, was a cheaper production and consequently more accessible. It enjoyed enormous commercial success, catapulting Johnson to become the world's largest publisher by 1864. As for Colton, he continued to publish his own Colton's General Atlas but shared map plates with Johnson for the remainder of his career.

Colton vs. Bolivia and Appeals to Congress

For the remainder of his life, Colton continued to seek redress with Bolivia over the matter of the unpaid Mapa de la Republica de Boliva. Finally, in 1874, still unpaid, Colton appealed directly to the United States Congress to intervene. With his lawyer, Hinton Rowan Helper (1829 - 1909), Colton published a booklet for submission to Congress, entitled Bolivia, as the Insidious Author and Persistent Perpetrator of a New International Crime. The United States Senate subsequently passed a resolution on January 19, 1875 to intervene with the government of Bolivia on Colton's behalf. The Bolivian government finally began paying Colton erratically over the next several years - often through banks in Peru who siphoned off as much as 50% of the payments. Some claims suggest that Colton was ultimately paid 200,000 USD, including interest, but we find this highly questionable. After paying substantial legal fees and repayment of loans, it is more likely Colton only received a small portion of the original 23,000 USD due.

The First (or Second) Foreign National Map Published in the United States

This map has long been considered the first foreign national map published in the United States. However, in 2016, we discovered an earlier map of the First Republic of Colombia (1819 - 1831), issued by Henry Schenck Tanner (1786 - 1858), that we believe holds this distinction. The Tanner map, issued at the behest of the Bolivar government in Colombia, was issued in 1825, making this map of Bolivia the second foreign national map published in the United States.

In Summation

And so, at last, this important map is put into some historical context while offered here for sale. In recap, Colton and Ondarza's map of Bolivia is a) the largest and most important map of Bolivia published in the 19th century, b) is the second foreign national map produced by an American commercial publisher at the behest of a foreign nation, and c) the cost of its publication, and the compounding refusal of Bolivia to pay the agreed sum, resulted directly in the bankruptcy of America's premier cartographic publisher and at the same time contributed to the rise of A. J. Johnson, who would in a short time become the world's largest publisher.

Publication History and Census

The history of the map can be broken down as follows. According to Colton, 10,000 examples were produced in New York City in 1859. Two thousand were delivered to La Paz, of which one thousand were sold at 12 USD each. An additional 8,000 were shipped to Tanca via the Peruvian port of Arica, where they languished in Bolivian customs until being lost in the 1868 Arica Earthquake. Some references suggest that as many as 3000 of these may have survived and were sold at 5 USD per map. Less reliable references suggest that others were offered for sale in Buenos Aires for 25 USD per map (likely some part of the remaining 1000 that were left in La Paz), although this is highly uncertain. Over the years some filtered back to North America and Europe, but most were destroyed or lost during Bolivia's late 19th century political turmoil. This map is now extremely rare.