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1788 Schraembl Map of the Mississippi Valley

MississippiValley-schraembl-1788
$475.00
[Mississippi Valley]. - Main View
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1788 Schraembl Map of the Mississippi Valley

MississippiValley-schraembl-1788

One of the best maps of the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys issued after the Revolutionary War.

Title


[Mississippi Valley].
  1788 (undated)     22.5 x 25.75 in (57.15 x 65.405 cm)     1 : 5150000

Description


This is the northwestern sheet from Franz Anton Schraembl's 1788 edition of Generalkarte von Nord America samt den Westindischen inseln depicting the central part of North America. Although derived from a larger wall map, the present map is a stand-alone piece and one of the first detailed maps of this region to appear after the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783). Concentrating on the Mississippi Valley, the map extends from the Gulf of California to the Pacific near Savannah, Georgia, and from Lake Winnipeg (Ouinpigon) to Mobile Bay.
A Closer Look
The map offers spectacular detail in a region little known to Anglo settlers further east, even after the Revolutionary War, and remained the purview of First Nations peoples and intrepid frontier adventurers. Detail is particularly rich east of the Mississippi, where Schraembl offers a comprehensive treatment of the First Nations, traces, frontier settlements, trading posts, and mostly abandoned French and Indian War (1754 - 1763) fortifications. Beyond, in the Trans-Mississippi, detail rapidly erodes giving way to gross speculation with apocryphal forests, mountain ranges, and river courses. The exception is the well-settled Mexican territory in the southwest, including the many missions around Santa Fe and the Rio del Norte Valley (Rio Grande).
Publication History and Census
The map is based upon the Thomas Pownall map of North America, first issued by Bowen and Gibson c. 1755, but here more closely derived from the pre-Revolutionary War 1783 Sayer and Bennet reissue. That map was a wall map on four sheets. In 1788, Schraembl re-engraved the four sections as separate maps for inclusion in his Allgemeiner Grosser Atlas. Scarce to the market.

CartographerS


Franz Anton Schrämbl (Schraembl; 1751 - December 13, 1803) was a Vienna-based cartographer working in the later part of the 18th century. Schrämbl was born in Vienna. He became director of the normal school in Troppau but soon quit to set up a bookshop in Vienna. In 1787, with fellow Austrian Franz Johann Joseph von Reilly (1766 - 1820), he founded a publishing firm. He began his great work, the Allgemeiner Grosser Atlas, in the same year. This ambitious large format atlas was to be based upon only the most up-to-date cartographic information available, among them cartographers J. B. B. D'Anville (1697 - 1782) and James Rennel (1742 - 1830), and explorers such as James Cook (1728 - 1779), Charles Roberts (1739 - 1825), and others. The atlas was published in 1800 and became the first Austrian commercial world atlas. The work experienced minimal circulation, possibly due to its high cost. The low sales nearly drove Schrämbl into insolvency, but he recovered through diversification into literature and art books. When Franz Anton died in 1803, his widow Johanna and her brother, the engraver Karl Robert Schindelmayer (1769 - 1839), assumed control of the firm. In 1825, his son, Eduard Schrämbl, took over. More by this mapmaker...


Thomas Pownall (1722 - February 5, 1805) was a British scholar, statesman and soldier active in the colonial administration of North America just prior to the American Revolutionary War. Pownell was born in England and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduation he was employed by his brother, John Pownall, at the office of the Lord's Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, which oversaw British economic interests in its North American colonies. In 1753, Pownall was appointed secretary to the governor of New York, Sir Danvers Osborne. Osborne, himself having be only recently appointed to the position, committed suicide shortly after taking office. Despite this setback, Pownall remained in America and devoted himself to studying and researching the colonies. In the process Pownall became close lifelong friends with Benjamin and other New World luminaries. He also published several notable works on the colonial administration of North America. In 1757 Pownall was appointed Governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony. In this position he frequently found himself at odds with the restrictive policies of the Board of Trade. It was not long before he was pushed out of office and, declining the governorship of Jamaica, reassigned to South Carolina. Despite nominally holding the governorship of South Carolina, Pownall never visited the colony. Instead he returned to England where he eventually became a member of Parliament. In Parliament, he advocated for reduced taxes towards the colonies - had he been heeded, the American Revolution may have never happened. Pownall retired from public life around 1780, but continued to pursue his scholarly interests. Pownall's research contributed significantly to several important maps and scholarly work on North America. Learn More...

Source


Schraembl, K. A., Allgemeiner Grosser Atlas, (Vienna: Phil. Jos. Schalbacher) 1800.     The Allgemeiner Grosser Atlas, alternatively titled Allgemeiner Grosser Schrämblischer Atlass, is considered the first Austrian commercial Atlas. It is a massive elephant folio atlas published in 1800 by Franz Anton Schrämbl (Schraembl; 1751 - 1803). The atlas drew from the best and most up-to-date cartographic information available, including the works of J. B. B. D'Anville (1697 - 1782) and James Rennel (1742 - 1830), and explorers such as James Cook (1728 - 1779), and Charles Roberts (1739 - 1825), among many others. It was published in Vienna by Phillip Joseph Schalbacher. The atlas was large and expensive, and as such, was of minimal commercial success and had a low circulate - leading to its considerable rarity today. It is believed that the atlas's slow sales and high production costs drove Schrämbl into insolvency by the time of his death in 1803.

Condition


Very good.

References


Boston Public Library, Leventhal, G3300 1788 .P68.