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Details 1857 Colton Map of Nebraska and Kansas Territories at Their Fullest Extent
1857 (dated) $500.00

1856 Colton Map of Nebraska and Kansas

NebraskaKansas-colton-1856
$225.00
Nebraska and Kanzas. - Main View
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1856 Colton Map of Nebraska and Kansas

NebraskaKansas-colton-1856

Territorial Nebraska at its fullest extending form 'Kanzas' to Canada.

Title


Nebraska and Kanzas.
  1856 (dated 1855)     14 x 17 in (35.56 x 43.18 cm)

Description


A beautiful 1855 first edition example of Colton's map of Nebraska and Kansas. This is most probably the rarest and most desirable of all Colton atlas maps. Like most of Colton's state maps, this map was derived from an earlier wall map of North America produced by Colton and D. Griffing Johnson. The map details the regions between the Great Salt Lake and Iowa and between the Canadian Border and New Mexico, covering territorial Kansas and Nebraska as well as parts of adjacent Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Utah.

This is one of the few maps to focus in the vast and ephemeral Nebraska in its full territorial glory extending from the 40th parallel to the border British America or Canada. This massive Nebraska territory, incorporated in May of 1854 as this map was being prepared, included most of the northern Great Plains, much of the Missouri River Basin, and the eastern part of the northern Rocky Mountains. By 1861 Nebraska Territory would be significantly reduced by the formation of Colorado and the Dakota Territory.

When this map was printed Nebraska and Kansas had only recently been opened for settlement. Consequently it excited considerable interest as both a place of resettlement and a dangerous segment of the transcontinental emigrant routes. At the time, this area was sparsely populated by diverse yet powerful Indian nations including the Comanche, Kioways, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Sioux, Dacotahs, Poncas, Pawnee's, Omahas, Missouris, Delawares, Shawnee, Osages, Crow, Black, and others - whose territorial claims Colton attempts to note. Colton also identifies three of the routes proposed for the Pacific Railroad, the Stevens Route far to the north, the Beswith Route running through the center of the map, and the Gunnison Route passing through Kansas. Settlement of this region would soon lead to the discovery of gold around Pike's Peak and the 1858-1859 Colorado Gold Rush.

It is interesting to note that Kansas is here spelled with a 'z,' as 'Kanzas.' This spelling corresponds to the original spelling used in documentation incorporating the region as a territory. The spelling 'Kansas' evolved as the standard usage in the 1860s.

This map is hand colored in pink, green, yellow and blue pastels to define state and territorial boundaries. Surrounded by Colton's typical spiral motif border. Dated and copyrighted to J. H. Colton, 1855. Published from Colton's 172 William Street Office in New York City. Issued as page no. 50 in volume 1 of Colton's 1856 Atlas of the World.

Cartographer


Joseph Hutchins Colton (July 5, 1800 - July 29, 1893), often publishing as J. H. Colton, was an important American map and atlas publisher active from 1833 to 1897. Colton's firm arose from humble beginnings when he moved to New York in 1831 and befriended the established engraver Samuel Stiles. He worked under Stiles as the 'Co.' in Stiles and Co. from 1833 to 1836. Colton quickly recognized an emerging market in railroad maps and immigrant guides. Not a cartographer or engraver himself, Colton's initial business practice mostly involved purchasing the copyrights of other cartographers, most notably David H. Burr, and reissuing them with updated engraving and border work. His first maps, produced in 1833, were based on earlier Burr maps and depicted New York State and New York City. Between 1833 and 1855 Colton would proceed to publish a large corpus of guidebooks and railroad maps which proved popular. In the early 1850s Colton brought his two sons, George Woolworth Colton (1827 - 1901) and Charles B. Colton (1832 - 1916), into the map business. G. W. Colton, trained as a cartographer and engraver, was particularly inspired by the idea of creating a large and detailed world atlas to compete established European firms for the U.S. market. In 1855, G.W. Colton issued volume one the impressive two volume Colton's Atlas of the World. Volume two followed a year later. Possibly because of the expense of purchasing a two-volume atlas set, the sales of the Atlas of the World did not meet Colton's expectations and so, in 1856, the firm also issued the atlas as a single volume. The maps contained in this superb work were all original engravings and most bear an 1855 copyright. All of the maps were surrounded by an attractive spiral motif border that would become a hallmark of Colton's atlas maps well into the 1880s. In 1857, the slightly smaller Colton's General Atlas replaced the Atlas of the World, which lacked the border. Most early editions of the General Atlas published from 1857 to 1859 do not have the trademark Colton spiral border, which was removed to allow the maps to fit into a smaller format volume. Their customers must have missed the border because it was reinstated in 1860 and remained in all subsequent publications of the atlas. There were also darker times ahead, in 1858 Colton was commissioned at sum of 25,000 USD by the government of Bolivia to produce and deliver 10,000 copies a large format map of that country. Although Colton completed the contract in good faith, delivering the maps at his own expense, he was never paid by Bolivia, which was at the time in the midst of a series national revolutions. Colton would spend the remainder of his days fighting with the Bolivian and Peruvian governments over this payment and in the end, after a congressional intervention, received as much as 100,000 USD in compensation. Nonetheless, at the time it must have been a disastrous blow. J. H. Colton and Company is listed as one of New York's failed companies in the postal record of 1859. It must have been this that led Colton into the arms of Alvin Jewett Johnson and Ross C. Browning. The 1859 edition of Colton's General Atlas lists Johnson and Browning as the 'Successor's to J. H. Colton' suggesting an outright buyout, but given that both companies continued to publish separately, the reality is likely more complex. Whatever the case may have been, this arrangement gave Johnson and Browning access to many of Colton's map plates and gave birth to Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas. The Johnson's Atlas was published parallel to Colton's atlas well in to the 1880s. The Colton firm itself subsequently published several other atlases including an Atlas of America, the Illustrated Cabinet Atlas, the Octavo Atlas of the Union, and Colton's Quarto Atlas of the World. They also published a large corpus of wall maps, pocket maps, and guides. The last known publications of the Colton firm date to 1897 and include a map and a view, both issued in association with the Merchant's Association of New York. Alice M. Colton married August R. Ohman (May 3, 1859 - April 22, 1934) on January 5, 1897. In 1898, Ohman joined the Colton firm, which continued to publish as Colton, Ohman & Co. until 1901. More by this mapmaker...

Source


Colton, G. W., Colton's Atlas of the World, illustrating Physical and Political Geography, (J. H. Colton and Company: New York) Vol 1, 1856.    

Condition


Very good. Blank on verso. Even overall toning.

References


Rumsey 0149.055 (1856 edition). Phillips (Atlases) 816.