Partie de L'Oregon

This is one of the sheets from Vandermaelen's landmark work, the first atlas to map the world on the same scale, and the first atlas produced using lithography. It shows a section centring on the Columbia River, thus showing both the coast of modern Oregon and Washington State.



Detail is sparse, as very few Europeans had visited this region by the 1820s. Most of the information beyond the coastline is derived from the Lewis & Clark Expedition of 1803-7. The inclusion of Fort Astoria (founded in 1811) at the mouth of the Columbia River is the only hint of a European presence in the area. The upper-edge of the map shows Puget Sound, including the sites of modern-day Olympia and Seattle (though neither had yet been settled). The Columbia River is well mapped thanks to the Lewis & Clark expedition, and the names of many local Native American tribes are marked on the map. Mt Hood and Mt. Jefferson are the only significant landmarks named south of the Columbia River in Oregon.



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