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1869 Ely Map of the Adirondacks (first accurate map of the Adirondacks!)
Adirondacks-ely-1869-2$2,800.00
Title
Map of the New York Wilderness.
1869 (dated) 28 x 40 in (71.12 x 101.6 cm) 1 : 253440
1869 (dated) 28 x 40 in (71.12 x 101.6 cm) 1 : 253440
Description
A rare 1869 edition of William Watson Ely's map of New York's Adirondack Mountains - the first large-scale map of the Adirondacks based on first-hand reconnaissance and survey work.
The work of Rochester physician and enthusiastic Adirondack sportsman W.W. Ely finally opened this region cartographically. Ely probably began working on his map around 1860 or perhaps slightly earlier. It must have been an immense undertaking, but Ely's correspondence suggests that he enjoyed the work as it combined intellectual challenge with outdoor life. The accomplishment was praised by his successor Wallace:
All examples of the earlier versions of Ely's map, as here, extending west as far as Jefferson County and Lake Ontario are quite rare. The OCLC cites moderate representation in institutional collections, but the map has become very scarce on the private market.
A Closer Look
The map covers from the St. Lawrence River to Lake Champlain, inclusive of St. Lawrence, Clinton, Essex, Hamilton, Warren, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, and Oneida Counties. The whole is surrounded by an elaborate decorative vine motif border. Spaciously proportioned with a focus on detail, Ely's map notes roads, paths, lakes, rivers, rapids, mines, waterfalls, villages, lodges, and farmsteads throughout. Cartography breaks the acanthus border in the upper right and far left to accommodate more of Lakes Champlain and Ontario, respectively.Ely's Mapping of the Adirondacks
With its lush wilderness, rich wildlife, and a plethora of lakes and rivers, the Adirondack Mountains were a popular sporting and fishing destination for much of the 19th century. As early as the 1850s, it was a favorite stomping ground for such luminaries as James Russell Lowell, Louis Agassiz, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nonetheless, it wasn't until 1867 that a reliable map of this region appeared. The Adirondacks' rugged rurality, lakes, mountains, and rivers proved a daunting obstacle for 19th-century surveyors and cartographers.The work of Rochester physician and enthusiastic Adirondack sportsman W.W. Ely finally opened this region cartographically. Ely probably began working on his map around 1860 or perhaps slightly earlier. It must have been an immense undertaking, but Ely's correspondence suggests that he enjoyed the work as it combined intellectual challenge with outdoor life. The accomplishment was praised by his successor Wallace:
To Dr. W. W. Ely, as the pioneer in recording these unmapped portions, and making reasonably plain to those who should follow the devious windings of stream and trail, is due to the gratitude of thousands who have acknowledged the benefit derived from his valuable map of 'the New York Wilderness,' which, up to the present time, has been the only one worthy of name as such.
The Coltons
The first formal mention of his map appeared in a letter to Ely's friend Louis H. Morgan, dated August 19, 1866,I shall not admit that the Adirondacks are behind your country I am ahead of you, for the publishers are soliciting my production - the Coltons have applied for my map and I am playing coy. They want the contribution but do not think the investment would be remunerative, but if they would publish, I would give it to them. If they will give me due credit for Authorship, I think I will let them have the map, but not to use for the purpose of compilation and take all the glory to themselves.Ely must have come to terms with the Coltons, for the map was published one year later 1867. Nonetheless, Ely was correct in his fears that the publishers would take all credit for the map, as later editions removed Ely's name from the cover and title.
Census and Publication History
Printed by G.W. and C. B. Colton of 172 William Street, New York. Some scholarship erroneously suggests this map was issued first in 1868, but we are aware of at least one example dated and copyrighted to 1867. A second significantly revised issue with a new copyright appeared in 1868, and a third, the present 1869 example. As the first reasonably accurate map of the Adirondacks, The New York Wilderness enjoyed immediate popularity. Around 1870 or 1871, the map was reduced to cover only the eastern Adirondack counties, updated, and published as New York Wilderness and the Adirondacks.All examples of the earlier versions of Ely's map, as here, extending west as far as Jefferson County and Lake Ontario are quite rare. The OCLC cites moderate representation in institutional collections, but the map has become very scarce on the private market.
CartographerS
William Watson Ely (April 30, 1812 - March 27, 1879) was a Rochester, New York physician, wilderness enthusiast, and hobbyist mapmaker. Ely was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, and studied medicine at Yale, graduating in 1834. He married shortly afterward and established a medical practice at Manlius, Onondaga County, New York. He relocated his practice to the larger city of Rochester in 1839, where he remained for the remainder of his days. Despite his success as a doctor, Ely is best remembered for his remarkable mapping of the Adirondacks, completed between 1860 and 1866. His meticulous work produced the first accurate map of the Adirondacks and was the definitive map of that region for some 20 years. Ely died in Rochester of heart disease in 1879. More by this mapmaker...
Joseph Hutchins Colton (July 5, 1800 - July 29, 1893), often publishing as J. H. Colton, was an important American map and atlas publisher active from 1833 to 1897. Colton's firm arose from humble beginnings when he moved to New York in 1831 and befriended the established engraver Samuel Stiles. He worked under Stiles as the 'Co.' in Stiles and Co. from 1833 to 1836. Colton quickly recognized an emerging market in railroad maps and immigrant guides. Not a cartographer or engraver himself, Colton's initial business practice mostly involved purchasing the copyrights of other cartographers, most notably David H. Burr, and reissuing them with updated engraving and border work. His first maps, produced in 1833, were based on earlier Burr maps and depicted New York State and New York City. Between 1833 and 1855 Colton would proceed to publish a large corpus of guidebooks and railroad maps which proved popular. In the early 1850s Colton brought his two sons, George Woolworth Colton (1827 - 1901) and Charles B. Colton (1832 - 1916), into the map business. G. W. Colton, trained as a cartographer and engraver, was particularly inspired by the idea of creating a large and detailed world atlas to compete established European firms for the U.S. market. In 1855, G.W. Colton issued volume one the impressive two volume Colton's Atlas of the World. Volume two followed a year later. Possibly because of the expense of purchasing a two-volume atlas set, the sales of the Atlas of the World did not meet Colton's expectations and so, in 1856, the firm also issued the atlas as a single volume. The maps contained in this superb work were all original engravings and most bear an 1855 copyright. All of the maps were surrounded by an attractive spiral motif border that would become a hallmark of Colton's atlas maps well into the 1880s. In 1857, the slightly smaller Colton's General Atlas replaced the Atlas of the World, which lacked the border. Most early editions of the General Atlas published from 1857 to 1859 do not have the trademark Colton spiral border, which was removed to allow the maps to fit into a smaller format volume. Their customers must have missed the border because it was reinstated in 1860 and remained in all subsequent publications of the atlas. There were also darker times ahead, in 1858 Colton was commissioned at sum of 25,000 USD by the government of Bolivia to produce and deliver 10,000 copies a large format map of that country. Although Colton completed the contract in good faith, delivering the maps at his own expense, he was never paid by Bolivia, which was at the time in the midst of a series national revolutions. Colton would spend the remainder of his days fighting with the Bolivian and Peruvian governments over this payment and in the end, after a congressional intervention, received as much as 100,000 USD in compensation. Nonetheless, at the time it must have been a disastrous blow. J. H. Colton and Company is listed as one of New York's failed companies in the postal record of 1859. It must have been this that led Colton into the arms of Alvin Jewett Johnson and Ross C. Browning. The 1859 edition of Colton's General Atlas lists Johnson and Browning as the 'Successor's to J. H. Colton' suggesting an outright buyout, but given that both companies continued to publish separately, the reality is likely more complex. Whatever the case may have been, this arrangement gave Johnson and Browning access to many of Colton's map plates and gave birth to Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas. The Johnson's Atlas was published parallel to Colton's atlas well in to the 1880s. The Colton firm itself subsequently published several other atlases including an Atlas of America, the Illustrated Cabinet Atlas, the Octavo Atlas of the Union, and Colton's Quarto Atlas of the World. They also published a large corpus of wall maps, pocket maps, and guides. The last known publications of the Colton firm date to 1897 and include a map and a view, both issued in association with the Merchant's Association of New York. Alice M. Colton married August R. Ohman (May 3, 1859 - April 22, 1934) on January 5, 1897. In 1898, Ohman joined the Colton firm, which continued to publish as Colton, Ohman & Co. until 1901. Learn More...
Condition
Very good. Removed from binder. Some minor repaired loss at a couple of fold intersections. Minor wear and toning on old fold lines.
References
OCLC 898476387. Marshall, G., 'Dr. Ely and his Adirondack Map,' New York History Vol. 35, No. 1 (January 1954), pp. 32-48. Stoddard, Seneca Roy, The Adirondacks, page 7. Phillips, Lee Philip, A List of Maps of America in the Library of Congress, page 514.