An attractive and highly detailed 1842 engraved map of the United States and adjoining portions of British North America and Mexico, retaining its original period hand coloring along important political boundaries.

A particularly interesting pre–Mexican War map, produced at a time when the political geography of western North America was dramatically different from that familiar today.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the map is the Pacific Northwest and present-day British Columbia region.

The modern international boundary between the United States and Canada had not yet been established across the Pacific Northwest.

The Oregon Country remained the subject of competing American and British claims, and the map reflects the geographical uncertainty of this period. The eventual boundary along the 49th parallel westward to the Pacific was not settled until the Oregon Treaty of 1846.

Consequently, the configuration of today’s Washington State and British Columbia is given a strange bulbous outline, making this an excellent visual record of North America before that settlement. Relatively few maps of this era depict this cartographic anomaly.

The western United States is likewise strikingly different from a modern map. California and much of the present-day American Southwest were still part of Mexico in 1842, several years before the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo transferred enormous western territories to the United States. Modern states such as California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and portions of several neighboring states therefore do not appear in their familiar political form.

The enormous interior western region is dominated by the Territory of Missouri, extending across a vast area far beyond the boundaries of the present State of Missouri. This reflects an earlier stage in the political organization of lands west of the Mississippi, before the creation and subdivision of many of the territories and states recognizable today. The map is especially interesting for its combination of political boundaries with rivers, mountain systems, settlements and areas associated with Native American peoples.

Also prominently shown is the Territory of Arkansas, another reminder of the rapidly changing territorial organization of the early United States. Although Arkansas had entered the Union as a state in 1836, maps of this period and particularly European-produced maps could preserve earlier territorial terminology or geographical information derived from earlier sources. This makes the map useful not only as a decorative object but also as an illustration of how geographical information was compiled and transmitted during the first half of the 19th century.

The map provides considerable detail throughout the settled eastern United States, Great Lakes, Mississippi and Missouri river systems, while the West is represented by dramatically larger territories and comparatively sparse settlement. Mountain ranges are beautifully rendered through engraved hachuring, giving the western portion considerable visual depth.

At lower left is an elegant engraved title cartouche reading “Carte des États-Unis d’Amérique,” accompanied by several distance scales, including different contemporary measures of distance. These scales are an appealing cartographic detail and illustrate the map’s European origins and intended readership.

The original hand-applied outline color remains especially attractive, with pink/red and yellow highlighting used to distinguish major political boundaries. The combination of fine engraving, restrained period color and the extraordinary historical geography makes this a particularly pleasing example for collectors of early American maps, Western Americana, Oregon Country material, Mexican-American border history, or 19th-century cartography.

Condition: The map remains well preserved, clean and very pleasing overall. There is some light, minor and entirely normal age-related paper wrinkling and toning, along with occasional small areas of age coloration consistent with an original map of this period. The engraved image and original hand coloring remain strong and attractive. Generous margins are present, as shown in the photographs.

A handsome 1842 original engraved and hand-colored map documenting the United States at a pivotal moment of westward expansion--before the modern U.S.–Canadian boundary in the Pacific Northwest and before the enormous territorial changes resulting from the Mexican-American War.

Sheet Measures c. 11 1/4” x 15”.

Engraved Area Measures c. 8 1/2" x 12".

Cartographic Reference(s):

Tool’s Dictionary of Mapmakers, vol. 4.

R36792