1829 Tanner First Edition Wall Map of the United States w/ Memoir

This, the first edition of Henry Schenck Tanner's 1829 wall map of the United States, is one of the most important American maps of the 19th century. With this important map Tanner initiated a new age of quintessentially American cartography. Unlike his predecessors, John Melish and Matthew Carey, Tanner was born and raised in the United States, and his maps are uniquely American productions, embracing American values and interests. Note the cartouche, with two deer grazing in a dense forest, while in the background three miniscule trains steam westward - a fitting metaphor for the United States, at the time undergoing brisk industrialization fueled by unlimited natural resources. Within the historical context, this map follows the territorial acquisitions of the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty (Florida, Oregon?), but predates the major expansions in the southwest following the Mexican-American War (1846 - 1848) and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848).

Scholars Laud the Map

Ristow writes,

Tanner undertook the ambitious task of compiling a large map, the United States of America, which he copyrighted on June 10, 1829. It is at the scale of 1:2,000,000, somewhat larger than Melish's 1816 map of the United States. . . Tanner's United States of America has thirteen inset maps, principally of cities and their environs, a statistical table, and profiles of a number of canals and railroad rights of way…

Rumsey refers to the map as 'one of best early large maps of the United States and the premier map for its period.'

A Closer Look

The map covers from the Missouri River in the vicinity of Fort Mandan eastward to the Atlantic seaboard and from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi Delta. South Florida is included via an inset appearing on the lower right. The Pacific Northwest, including Oregon, as well as modern day Idaho, Washington, Montana, and Wyoming, are continued in an inset at top center, just above Lake Huron.

Tanner identifies American Indian nations as 'districts,' particularly in the Trans-Mississippi. These include the Huron District, Sioux District, Mandan District, Osage District, and Ozark District, among others. He also includes all major roadways as well as distance measurements between towns - a useful detail which the accompanying memoir notes caused the map to take twice as long to prepare.

The whole is surrounded by fourteen inset maps detailing various American cities. These include the Environs of Albany, Environs of Boston, Environs of New York, Environs of Philadelphia and Trenton, Environs of Baltimore and Washington, Cincinnati, Charleston, New Orleans, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Pittsburg and Environs, as well and regional maps detailing south Florida and Oregon and the Mandan District.

This last inset, 'Oregon and Mandan Districts' is particularly significant as the first appearance of the name 'Oregon' on a map. There is a secondary sub-inset within this larger map entitled 'Outlet of the Oregon River.' In this case, the Oregon is the modern day 'Columbia River'.

We offer this map accompanied by the corresponding first edition of Tanner's fascinating Memoir on the Recent Surveys, Observations, and Internal Improvements in the United States in which he expounds upon his research, sources, and the production process.

Publication History and Census

Tanner engraved this map with assistance by E. B. Dawson, W. Allen, and J. Knight. The title cartouche was engraved by J. W. Steel. Tanner's map proved both useful and popular, with several editions to follow. Rumsey notes editions in 1829 (present example), 1830, 1832, 1834, 1836, 1838, 1839, 1841, 1843, 1844, 1845, and 1850. It is likely that Tanner derived some of the basic cartography from J. and A. Walker's map of the United States which was published in London two years prior. Regardless, this was the premier map of the United States until superseded by Mitchell's map of 1834.