1846 Mitchell Map of North America, w/ Republic of Texas

A beautiful example of Samuel Augustus Mitchell's 1846 hand-colored map of North America. Among other features, it is notable for displaying Texas in its final year as an independent republic and the northern boundary of the Oregon Territory at 54º40 parallel north.

A Closer Look

This hand-colored lithographic map covers the United States, Canada, Russian America (Alaska), Mexico and Central America, predating the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Waterways, mountains, cities and towns, forts, Native American groups, and other features are noted throughout. Texas is shown in its grandest incarnation, extending north as far as the Arkansas River and west as far as the Rio Grande (or Rio de Norte), inclusive of much of modern-day New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. A number of additional elements are of some interest, including an exceptionally narrow Lake Michigan and the Republic of Yucatan. The placement of the Buenaventura River, usually located in today's Utah and Nevada on earlier maps, in central California (consistent with the Salinas River) likely reflects the influence of John C. Frémont's important 1845 map of the Transmississippi West.

Republic of Texas

The Republic of Texas was a short-lived nation established in March 1836 when it seceded from Mexico. Following the independence of Mexico from Spain, the American Stephen Fuller Austin led a group of 300 Empresarios to settle Texas, near Austin, where they received a grant from the Mexican government. As more Americans moved to Texas, resentment and strife began to build between the American settlers and Mexican authorities. This and other factors ultimately led to the Texan Revolution in 1835 and the declaration of Texan independence in 1836. Texas remained an independent republic until it joined the United States ten years later in 1846.

Oregon Border DIspute

Further north Mitchell sets the United States - British America border at 54°40' north latitude. This constitutes a strong stance in favor of American claims to the region. The Oregon Boundary Dispute, as it came to be known, evolved from conflicting commercial interests - mainly associated with fur trade - in the region. The British believed this territory fell into the land controlled by the Hudson Bay Company while expansionist Americans, championed by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, asserted a claim to the region as far north as Russian America. This conflict would eventually escalate into the 54°40' dispute. The turmoil ultimately gave rise to slogans like 'Fifty-four Forty or Fight!' and the catchphrase 'Manifest Destiny.' The dispute was not resolved until the 1846 Oregon Treaty which, through concessions on both sides, formally set the boundary at the 49th parallel.

Publication History and Census

Though the copyright below the map refences Henry S. Tanner and is dated 1836, this map in fact appeared in the first issue of the first edition of Samuel Augustus Mitchell's New Universal Atlas. Mitchell had acquired the rights to the atlas from Cary and Hart in 1846, who had acquired them from Tanner in 1843. Importantly, in the course of changing hands, the atlas was converted from engraved plates to lithographic prints. Mitchell issued the atlas in early 1846 with Tanner's name still on the maps, then re-issued it later that same year to reflect territorial changes (the addition of Texas to the Union), removing Tanner's name from the copyright and replacing it with Horatio Nelson Burroughs.