1817 Mollo Map of the United States

A striking c. 1817 map of the United States by Tranquillo Mollo depicting the ephemeral period between the Louisiana Purchase and organized territorial expansion into the Transmississippi.

A Closer Look

The map covers from roughly Galveston Bay to the Grand Banks, and from Hudson's Bay to southernmost Florida. Individual state borders, as they existed at the time, are highlighted in red, while international borders are defined in yellow. A table in the lower right lists 18 provinces including, curiously, 'Neu Orleans'. A note below this identifies territories not yet ratified as states: Luisana, Missisippi, Yllinois, Indiana, and Mischigan. The map exhibits the fine engraving and high quality printing for which Mollo would later become known as head of Artaria.

Early Ephemeral Louisiana Purchase Military Districts

This map exhibits a very ephemeral period in the history of the Transmississippi in the vicinity of Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Following March 10, 1804, known as 'Three Flags Day,' when the United States physically took possession of Louisiana from France, both Orleans Territory and the District of Louisiana were created in what is modern day Louisiana - both are identified on this map. The lands north of the 33rd parallel were divided into five military districts loosely based upon earlier Spanish land districts: Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve, St. Charles, and St. Louis. Of these counties, Cape Girardeau containing New Madrid was the largest, and from it, the District of Arkansas was spit off in 1806, for judicial reasons. Later, in 1815, the Lawrence County, as seen here, was split off. Howard County (named after deceased territorial governor Benjamin Howard) was divorced from the St. Louis District in 1816.

Publication History and Census

This map was compiled in Vienna by Tranquilo Mollo, with exceptional engraving by Lorenz Rieder. There are various editions of this map with various dates. The present example bears a secondary imprint for the Lehrbuch der Geographie (Textbook of Geography), although we have been unable to trace the specific work from which it was extracted. Some references date this map as early as 1807, while other place it as late as 1820. Based on the land districts, this map must date to about 1817. We see examples in three institutions and the map appears on the market from time to time.