1850 Ensign and Thayer Wall Map of the World

Scarce decorative Wall Map of the World.

An attractive 1850 wall map of the world by the New York firm of Ensign and Thayer. The map presents the entire world on a Mercator Projection. It is surrounded by ensigns or flags of major maritime powers as well as an unusual decorative border defined by seashell vignettes. Different countries are highlighted by color, except the United States, wherein the individual states have their own color defination. The map meticulously details the routes of important explorers, including Christopher Columbus’ first voyage John and Sebastian Cabot, Vasco de Gama, Magellan, Sir Francis Drake, Commodore Anson, Captain James Cook, Captain Jean de la Perouse, Captain George Vancouver, and the United States Exploring Expedition (U.S. Ex. Ex.). In California, the Gold Region, reflecting general interest in the 1849 California Gold Rush, is noted. Texas is illustrated according to the Compromise of 1850, thus underscoring the cartographers' meticulousness in updating their maps.

Publication History and Census

This map was first published by Phelps and Ensign in 1841. It subsequently underwent numerous updates under various 'Ensign' related partnerships, including T. and E. H. Ensign, and, as here, Ensign and Thayer. Ensign and his various partners were responsible for some of the most unusual and decorative American wall maps of the mid-19th century. While the Ensign firm was prolific, producing a wide variety of maps, his individual publications were invariably small runs and are almost universally quite scarce. This map is no exception with only two cited references in the OCLC and no record on the private market.

Cartographers

Edward Hooker Ensign (August 18, 1818 - July 10, 1871) was an American map, book, and print publisher based in New York City in the mid-19th century. Born in West Hartland, Connecticut in 1818, he was established in the New York publishing trade by 1839. His career developed through a succession of partnerships associated with travelers' guides, pocket maps, decorative wall maps, and historical prints. During the 1840s, he worked with Timothy Ensign under the imprint T. and E. H. Ensign and participated in the publishing enterprise Phelps, Ensigns and Thayer, whose partners included Humphrey Phelps (1799 - 1875) and Horace Thayer (b. 1811). Surviving publications demonstrate that these imprints overlapped rather than forming a simple chronological succession: an 1845 Phelps and Ensign guide, for example, accompanied a map bearing the T. and E. H. Ensign imprint. In 1851, Ensign and Thayer's travelers' guide to the western states advertised publishing addresses in both New York City and Buffalo. During the 1850s, Ensign became associated with Ensign, Bridgman and Fanning, whose partners included Thomas Coit Fanning (b. 1805). The 1857 New York directory lists both Edward H. Ensign and this firm as map dealers at 156 William Street. Its publications included state and railroad maps, illustrated geographical broadsides, and guides to western travel. At the beginning of the Civil War, the firm issued Our Nation's Camp Ground, combining maps of the mid-Atlantic region and Washington with explicitly pro-Union imagery. His various imprints include 'Phelps and Ensign' (1841-1844), 'T. and E. H. Ensign' (1844 - 1848), 'Ensign and Thayer' (1849), 'Ensign, Thayer, and Company' (1850 - 1851), 'Horace Thayer and Company' (1852), and 'Ensign, Bridgman and Fanning' (1854 - 1863).   Further Details...

Horace Thayer (June 29, 1811 - March 15, 1875) was an American map publisher and lithographer active in New York City, Buffalo, and Warsaw, New York, during the middle of the 19th century. Born in Hartwick, New York, he married Harriet Margaret Dodge (1814 - 1870) on February 20, 1833. He moved from Warsaw to New York City in 1845 and entered a short-lived association with the Kellogg lithographers, publishing as Kelloggs and Thayer in 1846 - 1847. His cartographic business specialized in travel guides, wall maps, and pocket maps, often drawing upon existing cartographic compilations. During the 1840s and early 1850s he worked with Timothy Ensign (1795 - 1849) and Edward Hooker Ensign (1818 - 1871), whose changing partnerships produced the imprints Ensigns and Thayer, Ensign and Thayer, and Ensign, Thayer, and Company. He subsequently published as Horace Thayer and Company. His business combined map publishing with the manufacture of map rollers, the wooden fittings used to mount wall maps. He returned to Warsaw in the 1850s to establish a map-roller manufactory while continuing his connections with New York publishing. In the late 1850s and early 1860s, he collaborated with George Woolworth Colton (1827 - 1901), son of Joseph Hutchins Colton (1800 - 1893); their publications included maps bearing the Thayer and Colton imprint. His various imprints included Kelloggs and Thayer (1846 - 1847), Ensigns and Thayer (1848), Ensign and Thayer (1849 - 1850), and Ensign, Thayer, and Company (1850 - 1851), Phelps and Watson (1859), and Thayer and Colton (1859-186?). Thayer's New York business addresses included 50 Ann Street and 18 Beekman Street, the latter appearing on his 1861 village map of Warsaw. He also invested in Warsaw real estate, purchasing farmland in 1853 and a house in 1864, and later operated a map-roller establishment in nearby Johnsonburg. Following his first wife's death, he married Mary O. Tuttle on June 19, 1872. Thayer drowned in Tonawanda Creek on March 15, 1875.   Further Details...

Condition

Good. Unrestored wall map on original rollers. Some cracking and whitening. Even overall toning. Water stain upper right.

References

OCLC 78150071.