1850 Cowperthwait Map of Kentucky

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Title:    A New Map of Kentucky with its Roads & Distances from place to place along the Stage & Steam Boat Routes.

Description:    A stunning hand colored map of Kentucky published by S. A. Mitchell Sr. in 1850. Depicts the state in superb detail with counties, roads, canals, cities and rivers clearly noted. Inset maps depict the vicinity of Lexington, the Falls of Ohio, and Lewis & Mason counties. A table in the upper right quadrant indicates steam boat millage. Cartographically this map is based on earlier maps by J. S. Tanner. Map was issued as plate no. 28 in Mitchell’s New General Atlas. Dated and copyrighted “Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1850 by Thomas Cowperthwait & Co. in the Clerks office of the District court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.”

Date:    1850

References:    Rumsey 0537.028 (1846 edition), Phillips 6103-27. Rumsey 0977.024 (Tanner edition)

Cartographer:    Samuel Augustus Mitchell Senior began his map publishing career in the early 1830s. Having worked as a school teacher, Mitchell was frustrated with the low quality and inaccuracy of school texts of the period. His first maps were an attempt to rectify this problem. In the next 20 years Mitchell would become the most prominent American map publisher of the mid-19th century. Mitchell worked with prominent engravers H. S. Tanner and H. N. Burroughs before attaining the full copyright on his maps in 1847. In 1849 Mitchell teamed up with printer Cowperthwait & Company to produce the Mitchell's Universal Atlas and the Mitchell's General Atlas. In the late 1850s most of the Mitchell copyrights were bought by Desilver and Co. who continued to publish his maps, many with modified borders and color schemes, until Mitchell's son, Samuel Augustus Mitchell Jr, entered the picture. S.A. Mitchell Jr. purchased most of the copyrights back from Desilver and, from 1860 on, published his own New General Atlas. The younger Mitchell became as prominent as his father and published atlases well into the late 1880s when most of the copyrights were again sold and the Mitchell firm closed its doors for the final time. Click here for a list of rare maps from Samuel Augustus Mitchell.

Size:   Printed area measures 16 x 13 inches (40.64 x 33.02 centimeters)

Condition:    Fine or perfect condition. Blank on verso.

Code:   KT-m-50 (Necessary for phone inquiries: 646-320-8650)