1827 Map of The Oregon Territory (Idaho, Western Montana, Wyoming)

This is Philipe Vandermaelen's revised 1827 map of the eastern Oregon Territory, capturing the mountainous region between the upper Missouri River and the headwaters of the Columbia River, which is now Idaho and the western parts of Montana and Wyoming. It was the largest-scale map of this region produced to date - 'no mapmaker had previously attempted to use such a large scale for any western American area.' (Wheat). Like all of the maps from Vandermaelen's Atlas, it is the also the first map of the region executed in lithograph.

A Closer Look

This is the second iteration of this map: Vandermaelen's first, printed in 1825 and entitled 'Partie de l'Oregon' covered the same area, but with a radically different interpretation of the location and character of the region's mountains, and lacking the explorers' tracks so important to placing this work in its historical context: the 1804-6 tracks of Lewis and Clark, and the 1807-8 tracks of John Colter (the first European explorer to enter the Yellowstone region).

On the Map

The map focuses on the mountains lying between the Snake River (here termed Lewis' River) and the upper Missouri River; it spans from the Flathead River in the north to Lake Riddle and Lake Eustis, the latter name being the one used for Yellowstone Lake on William Clark's map of the region, from which the rivers, passes and explorers' tracks on this map are mainly drawn. The mountains - indicated with hachure - resemble neither those on the Lewis and Clark nor those on the 1825 first edition of Vandermaelen's own map. It is probable that in revising his earlier map to incorporate the explorers' tracks, Vandermaelen saw that the pictorial rendition of the Rocky Mountains and the Tetons on the earlier maps appeared to nonsensically contradict the courses of the rivers and the paths chosen by the explorers. The resulting delineation of the regions mountains is no less imaginary than those of the precursor maps, but here at least the courses of rivers do not pass magically through ridges.

In common with Vandermaelen's other maps of the west, he includes here regions of Native habitation, naming the specific nations and indicating their estimated populations; particularly prominent here are the Shoshone.

Publication History

This map appeared in the fourth part, 'Quatrième partie, Amér. sept.' of Vandermaelen's Atlas universel de géographie physique, politique, statistique et minéralogique. The atlas was produced in one edition in 1827; only 810 complete sets were sold. The full set of six volumes appears in eleven institutional collections in OCLC; the 4th volume alone is listed in 9. This map is listed as a separate only six times in OCLC, although it has appeared on the market from time to time.