1838 Mitchell Wall Map of the World with Republic of Texas

This is an impressive large-scale 1838 wall map of the world issued by S. A. Mitchell. The map includes ephemeral geographical content, including the Republic of Texas, U.S. claims to British Columbia, an early state of exploration in central Africa, and ongoing speculation regarding the Northwest Passage.

A Closer Look

As the title suggests, the map embraces the world on Mercator's Projection. It reflects the political disputes and geographical understanding of the era, including such ephemeral elements as the Republic of Texas and U.S. claims to British Columbia. A band of discovery just south of the Sahara underscores successive waves of exploration in the mid-19th century. In the Persian Gulf, Dubai (Debai) is correctly identified. Throughout, there are copious annotations regarding local geography, culture, and discovery.

The mapmakers made every effort to detail the routes of important voyages of discovery, including the commonly mapped explorations of Vitus Bering, Cook, Vancouver, Perouse, and Wallis, as well as lesser-known voyages, such as the explorations of the British fur traders Princess Royal and Prince of Wales (including where they caught a shark), the 1765-66 voyage of Commodore Byron, Marion de Fresne and Crozet (1771-73), and the 1709 voyage of Frondat, among others. An inset in the lower right illustrates the colony of New South Wales in Australia, which was then an area of considerable global interest.

Sources and Author's Commentary

The following is quoted from the promotional material issued by the authors to support sales of the map in 1837,

The basis of the Map is Purdy's large Chart of the World, improved to 1836; a work held in high estimation by men of science, and navigators generally for the complete and accurate representation of the coasts, islands, tracks of distinguished circumnavigators etc. The interior parts of some of the countries represented on the chart were, however, found not to be so full and complete as could be desired: special attention has been paid to supplying all deficiencies in this respect. Many portions of original work have been replaced by new compilations, extracted in instances from the most recent authorities; this is the case particularly in North America, Africa, Australasia, and Polynesia. All the topographical details are exhibited as much in accordance with the present state of geographical knowledge as possible. The latest discoveries will be found exhibited as distinctly as the scale of the map will admit. Numerous items of information, and many islands, the majority of which discovered by American navigators, are now inserted for the first a general map of the world.

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.

54-40 or Fight! American Claims to British Columbia

Following the transcontinental crossing of North America by the British Northwest Company sponsored explorer Alexander MacKenzie (1792 -1793), and the American expedition of Louis and Clark up the Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River (1804 - 1806), it became apparent that control of the fur and resource-rich Pacific Northwest would bring great wealth and power to whoever could assert sovereignty. The American tycoon John Jacob Astor, with the permission of President Thomas Jefferson, was the first to attempt a permeant trading colony in the region, founding Astoria on the Columbia River in 1811. This quickly led to a confrontation with the established British-Canadian Northwest Company over this valuable territory. Americans in the 1820s through the 1840s argued that most of the Pacific Northwest should be part of the United States as a legacy of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. England, on the other hand, argued for residual claims to the region derived from the MacKenzie Expedition and its fur trading empires: The Northwest Company and the Hudson Bay Company. The Oregon Dispute, as it came to be known, became an important geopolitical issue between the British Empire and the United States, especially after the War of 1812. Americans adopted the slogan '54-40 or Fight!' until the Oregon Question was finally resolved roughly along the current borderline by the 1846 Oregon Treaty.

Publication History and Census

This map was drafted in 1837 by J. H. Young for Samuel Augustus Mitchell, working with Philadelphia mapsellers Hinman and Dutton. The present example bears the 1837 copyright as well as an 1838 production date, however, we believe it to be the first and only edition. We have identified only one confirmed example of this map, located at the Library of Congress. A 19th-century catalog of the Providence Athenaeum Library also lists an example, but it is unclear if that example remains in the library's hands. No market history.