1876 Mitchell Map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
|
|
|
Description: A beautiful example of S. A. Mitchell Jr.’s 1876 folio map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Covers downtown Philadelphia and adjacent Camden, offering street detail on both sides of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. This variant on Mitchell’s Philadelphia marks a significant departure from his 1860 – 1875 Philadelphia series. Urban expansion to the west of the Schuylkill called for the production of this map which appears in double page folio format. Names important buildings, parks, roads, railways, public work, and military installations. Color coded according to city wards. Surrounded by the attractive vine motif border common to Mitchell atlases between 1866 and 1880. One of the more attractive atlas maps of Philadelphia to appear in the later 19th century. Prepared by S. A. Mitchell Jr. for inclusion as plates 42-43 in the 1876 issue of Mitchell’s New General Atlas. Dated and copyrighted, “Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1876 by S. Augustus Mitchell in the Office of the Librarian of Congress in Washington.”
Date: 1876 (dated)
Source: Mitchell Jr., S. A., Mitchell's New General Atlas, 1876 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 22 x 15 inches (55.88 x 38.1 centimeters)
Condition: Very good. Original centerfold. Blank on verso.
Code: Philadelphia-mitchell-1876 (Necessary for phone inquiries: 646-320-8650)
|