1846 Bradford Map of South America

SouthAmerica-bradford-1846
$175.00
South America. - Main View
South America. - Main View
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1846 Bradford Map of South America

SouthAmerica-bradford-1846

Created during the political unrest rampant in 19th century South America.
$175.00

Title

South America.
  1846 (dated)     15.5 x 12 in (39.37 x 30.48 cm)     1 : 36000000

Description

This is an 1846 Thomas G. Bradford map of South America. The map depicts the continent from Panama to Tierra del Fuego and from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Created during an era of political instability, violence, and civil war throughout the continent, it would be decades before territorial boundaries in South America were no longer in flux. The Argentine Civil Wars were raging at the time this map was published, and Peru and Ecuador were fighting over their border, a conflict that would not be fully resolved until 1998. True to the overall aesthetic of the Universal Illustrated Atlas, a high level of detail is illustrated here. Cities and towns throughout the continent are labeled, including Quito, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, Bogota, Montevideo, and Cusco. Rivers, such as the Amazon, Orinoco, and Paraguay, traverse the continent in every direction, and the Andes are depicted as well..

This map was engraved by George Boynton and published in the 1846 edition of Bradford and Goodrich's A Universal Illustrated Atlas.

CartographerS

Thomas Gamaliel Bradford (1802 - 1887) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked as an assistant editor for the Encyclopedia Americana. Bradford's first major cartographic work was his revision and subsequent republishing of an important French geography by Adrian Balbi, Abrege de Geographie published in America as Atlas Designed to Illustrate the Abridgment of Universal Geography, Modern and Ancient. Afterwards Bradford revised and expanded this work into his own important contributions to American cartography, the 1838 An Illustrated Atlas Geographical, Statistical and Historical of the United States and Adjacent Countries. Bradford's cartographic work is significant as among the first to record Texas as an independent nation. In his long career as a map publisher Bradford worked with William Davis Ticknor of Boston, Freeman Hunt of New York, Charles De Silver of Philadelphia, John Hinton, George Washington Boynton, and others. We have been able to discover little of Bradford's personal life. More by this mapmaker...


George Washington Boynton (fl. c. 1830 - 1850) was a Boston based cartographer and map engraver active in the first half of the 19th century. Boynton engraved and compiled maps for numerous publishers including Thomas Bradford, Nathaniel Dearborn, Daniel Adams, and S. G. Goodrich. His most significant work is most likely his engraving of various maps for Bradford's Illustrated Atlas, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of the United States and the Adjacent Countries and Universal Illustrated Atlas. He also engraved for the Boston Almanac. In 1835, Boynton is listed as an employee of the Boston Bewick Company, an engraving, stereotype, and printing concern based at no. 47 Court Street, Boston. Little else is known of his life. Learn More...

Source

Bradford, T. G. and Goodrich, S. G., A Universal Illustrated Atlas, exhibiting a Geographical, Statistical, and Historical view of the World, (Boston: Charles D. Strong) 1846.     The Universal Illustrated Atlas is one of the great American atlases of the first half of the 19th century. The atlas was first published in 1838 under the imprint of Charles D. Strong. It replaced and superseded Bradford's earlier smaller format Illustrated Atlas, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of the United States and the Adjacent Countries. Numerous reissues of the Universal Illustrated Atlas followed until about 1848. Although there are minor variations between the editions, most contain about 50 maps, the majority of which focus on the United States. Bradford's atlases are significant for recording North America during the Republic of Texas Era. In later editions, particularly the 1846 edition, Bradford illustrates the boom in railroad construction, possibly with the idea that his maps would aid travelers in planning journeys by rail. It was compiled by Thomas Gamaliel Bradford and Samuel Griswold Goodrich with most of the plates engraved by George Washington Boynton (fl. c. 1830 - 1850). Other contributors include Thomas Gordon (1778 - 1848), Fielding Lucas Jr. (1781-1854), Samuel Edward Stiles (1844 - 1901), Sherman and Smith (fl. c. 1829 - 1855), and Horace Thayer (1811 - c. 1874).

Condition

Very good. Even overall toning. Blank on verso.

References

Rumsey 2120.086 (1838 edition).