Large, detailed map of the United States from the East coast to the Mississippi with the lands beyond labelled as a vast Missouri Territory.
This map, although dated 1841, has extremely antiquated geography for its date. The reason for this can be traced back to its source. The venerable William Faden published a series of highly influential maps covering the same area, the first of which was published in 1777 under the name of “ The British Colonies of North America”. Faden periodically updated and published these maps throughout the next two decades, with corresponding nomenclature and political changes, particularly after American independence. These earlier maps featured a large, illustrated title cartouche on the lower right, recording these name changes.
There was a major revision of the map by Faden in 1820, when the illustrated title cartouche was erased and new geographical features were added to reflect the extraordinary changes within the United States in the first forty years of its existence. These included the newly created states of Alabama and Missouri, the short lived northern border of the states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, showing the former without access to Lake Michigan and the remains of the vast Northwestern Territory including Michigan’s western Peninsula. The Adams-Onis Treaty, although signed, had not been ratified by the U.S. Senate at this point, hence the separation of Florida into East and West. Of further interest is the marking of various western land parcels belonging to the various land companies and individuals: these include the New Jersey Company, the Illinois Company, Colonel Simmes and the Ohio Company among others.
Faden retired from the map business shortly after this map was published and passed his business to his apprentice James Wyld the Elder. Wyld issued this map with little change at least once in 1832, but he died in 1836, with the business passing onto his son James Wyld the Younger. It is the latter who would regularly issue the General Atlas, one of his flagship products, with this map included. There seems to have been little effort at updating the geography, with much of it being left in its 1820 iteration. The one big change is the addition of Missouri and Arkansas north of Louisiana. The title cartouche still references the author as James Wyld, successor to William Faden, thus the Elder, but the date quoted on this map is 1841, five years after his death.
Original hand colour.