John Arrowsmith was the last scion of the great firm began by his uncle Aaron in 1790. He took over the business from his cousin Samuel in 1839 amalgamating it with his own firm which he had founded in 1830. In 1834 he published the mainstay work of his business, the "London Atlas" for the first time with fifty maps. A second edition followed in 1835 and from then on, it was issued multiple times until the 1860s. As was the practice of his uncle and cousins, John regularly revised, updated and augmented his atlas with the first edition containing fifty maps and the last distinguishable edition of 1861 containing substantially more. One late edition has been identified as containing 72 maps. The "London Atlas" becomes difficult to collate at an early stage as it quickly became a bespoke publication, often being bound for individual clients with specific maps requested. These are often not recorded in the contents page.



This world map on Mercator's Projection is from the second edition of 1835. Stylistically it bears little resemblance to his uncle's famous wall map of the same title with the map being centered on the Pacific and in a completely different engraving style and colouring. The map does not show marine voyages or political borders, only outlining continents in original hand colour.



The most interesting aspect of this map is its chronicling of the exploration of the Arctic and the Antarctic. The Arctic exploration is focused on the northern Canadian coast, with a detailed depiction of the coast after Sir John Franklin's overland Coppermine River and Mackenzie River expeditions of 1819-27, integrated with information gathered by William Frederick Beechey sailing through the Behring Straits in the west in 1825-8 and Sir William Parry's three expeditions between 1819-25 on the eastern side of Canada.

The exploration of the South Pole was at a far less advanced stage, with Arrowsmith making an exception and showing abbreviated marine routes of early explorers such as James Weddell in 1823, John Biscoe in 1831-3 and Fabian Bellingshausen in 1819-21. These sea voyages also serve to outline very early sights of the Antarctic coastline such as Graham Land, then named New South Shetland and the Polar Sandwich Islands.



Arrowsmith helpfully adds two polar insets on to his map, illustrating these new discoveries and adding details of yet another of Parry's voyages, this time his attempt to reach the North Pole in 1827. He was not successful but the furthest north he reached remained a record for the next forty nine years.

Arrowsmith would continue to use the same model of map throughout the publishing life of the atlas but incorporating multiple revisions and additions to account for new geographical and geo-political information. [WLD4337]