1835 Bradford Map of Washington DC, before Retrocession w/ Alexandria, Virginia

This is a rare and beautiful 1835 map of the District of Columbia by the important American mapmaker T. G. Bradford. It depicts the District of Columbia prior to the retrocession of Virginia, which included the lands donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia. It covers Washington City, and the Washington County along with the settlements of Georgetown on the eastern side of the Potomac River and the settlement of Alexandria and the County of Alexandria on the western side of the Potomac. The Capitol, President's House, City Hall and other important places of interest are identified with a key in the lower left quadrant.

in 1791, following the Residents Act, the District of Columbia was formed from the lands donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia. In the 1830s' after Alexandria went into economic decline due to negligence by Congress, residents petitioned Virginia to take back the donated land through retrocession. In 1847, the retrocession legislation was formally accepted and the county of Alexandria was returned to Virginia, leaving Washington County part of the District of Columbia and forming the current boundary of the county's capital, Washington DC.

This map was published as plate no. 37 in Thomas G. Bradford's 1835 Comprehensive Atlas Geographical, Historical and Commercial.  Bradford's atlas, published in 1835 was an important work on many levels.  First, it was one of the first American atlases to follow an encyclopedic format, offering readers extensive geographical and statistical tables to supplement the maps themselves.  Second, it was published in Boston and influenced the city's rise as a publishing center later in the 19th century (at the time most publishing in the United States was restricted to New York and Philadelphia).  Third, this atlas was the first to contain a separate and specific map showing the Republic of Texas.  Fourth and finally, Bradford's atlas in some instances broke the Euro-centric mold regarding atlas production.  Among other things, Bradford focused his atlas on the Americas and abandoned the classical decoration common in European atlases in favor of a more informational and inherently American approach.

Bradford published this atlas in several editions and with various partners.  The first edition was published by William D. Ticktor and did not contain the iconic Republic of Texas map (although we have in fact seen Ticktor examples with a Texas map, suggesting, against conventional wisdom, that there may have been two Ticktor editions).  The second official edition, published in the same year by the American Stationers Company, was the first to contain the Republic of Texas map, which is based on Austin's map, with two pages of descriptive text.  A third edition was issued in 1836, also by American Stationers (though still dated 1835), and contained an unaltered Republic of Texas map with only a single page of descriptive test.  A fourth edition appeared later, possibly 1837, and included an updated and revised map of Texas that replaces the old Mexican land grants with new inchoate counties. The maps from this atlas are an important addition to any collection focusing on early American cartography and Republic of Texas cartography.

All maps in this atlas, though not specifically noted as such, were most likely engraved by G. W. Boynton of Boston, who also engraved most of the maps for Bradford's later publication.