1846 Mitchell's Map of Texas Oregon and California

The essential covered wagon trail map of the American west.

A stunning example of Mitchell's seminal 1846 pocket map of Texas, Oregon, Upper California, Missouri Territory, the Indian Territory (Oklahoma, though in this example including most of Kansas and Colorado). This important map of Texas is one of the first widely-circulated maps of the early statehood period. This map shows the borders of Texas extending to Santa Fe. Also includes Texas' claim to the Upper Rio Grande in present day New Mexico. These claims were eventually given up in the 1850 'Great Compromise,' wherein the U.S. Federal Government assumed Texas' public debt. To make this map Mitchell compiled the mappings of Arrowsmith (1841), Fremont, Emory, Wilkes, and Nicollet, as well as making use of data from the Lewis and Clark expedition. This map was very popular when issued due to general interest in the new state of Texas as well as the Mexican-American war, which started the same year the map was issued. Brigham Young, the Mormon Moses, famously ordered six copies of this map when planning the 1847 Mormon migration west. One of the most important maps in American history.

Cartographer

Samuel Augustus Mitchell (March 20, 1792 - December 20, 1868) began his map publishing career in the early 1830s. Mitchell was born in Bristol, Connecticut. He relocated to Philadelphia in 1821. Having worked as a school teacher and a geographical writer, Mitchell was frustrated with the low quality and inaccuracy of school texts of the period. His first maps were an attempt to rectify this problem. In the next 20 years Mitchell would become the most prominent American map publisher of the mid-19th century. Mitchell worked with prominent engravers J. H. Young, H. S. Tanner, and H. N. Burroughs before attaining the full copyright on his maps in 1847. In 1849 Mitchell either partnered with or sold his plates to Thomas, Cowperthwait and Company who continued to publish the Mitchell's Universal Atlas. By about 1856 most of the Mitchell plates and copyrights were acquired by Charles Desilver who continued to publish the maps, many with modified borders and color schemes, until Mitchell's son, Samuel Augustus Mitchell Junior, entered the picture. In 1859, S.A. Mitchell Jr. purchased most of the plates back from Desilver and introduced his own floral motif border. From 1860 on, he published his own editions of the New General Atlas. The younger Mitchell became as prominent as his father, publishing maps and atlases until 1887, when most of the copyrights were again sold and the Mitchell firm closed its doors for the final time.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good.

References

Rumsey 0534.000. Phillips (America) 202. Wheat, C. I., Mapping of the Transmississippi West, 1540 – 1861, 520. Wheat (Gold) 29. Cohen (Westward Movement) 134-135.