1860 Mitchell Map of New York City, New York (first edition)
|
|
|
Description: A beautiful example of the first edition of S. A. Mitchell’s 1860 map of New York City. Depicts New York City along with parts of Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Hoboken and Jersey City. Offers wonderful detail at the street level including references to parks, individual streets, piers, ferries, and important buildings. Colored coded with pastels according to towns. Surrounded by the attractive floral border common to Mitchell atlases between 1860 and 1865. This variant differs from later examples (1861-2) of Mitchell’s New York in that city wards are not defined. One of the more attractive atlas maps of New York to appear in the mid 19th century. Prepared by S. A. Mitchell Jr. for inclusion as plate 16 in the 1860 issue of Mitchell’s New General Atlas. Dated and copyrighted, “Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1860 by S. Augustus Mitchell Jr. in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the U.S. for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.”
Date: 1860 (dated)
Source: Mitchell Jr., S. A., Mitchell's New General Atlas, Containing Maps Of The Various Countries Of The World, Plans Of Cities, Etc. Embraced In Forty-Seven Quarto Maps, Forming A Series Of Seventy-Six Maps And Plans, Together With Valuable Statistical Tables. (1860 First Edition)
References: Rumsey 0565.010. Phillips (Atlases) 831-16. New York Public Library, Map Division, Digital ID: 1510801. Haskell, Manhattan Maps: A Co-operative List, 1104 & 1105.
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 11 x 13 inches (27.94 x 33.02 centimeters)
Condition: Very good condition. A couple of minor stains confined to outer margins. Blank on verso.
Code: NYC-mitchell-1860 (Necessary for phone inquiries: 646-320-8650)
|