1866 Mitchell Map of Washington D.C.

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Title:    Plan of the City of Washington The Capitol of the United States of America.

Description:    A rare 1866 Map of Washington D.C. by American map publisher S. A. Mitchell Jr. Depicts the city shortly following Lincoln’s assassination. Important buildings such as the capitol, the Arsenal, the Smithsonian Institute, the White House, etc. are individually drawn in and labeled. Includes Georgetown. Based upon the original plan of Washington D. C. developed by French architect Pierre-Charles L'Enfant . Dated and copyrighted: “Entered according to act of Congress in the Year of 1866 by S. Augustus Mitchell, Jr. in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Date:    1866

References:    Phillips, 1026.; Rumsey, 2483.019.; Ristow, Walter. American Maps and Mapmakers p. 303, 315.

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 14 x 11.5 inches (35.56 x 29.21 centimeters)

Condition:    Fine or perfect condition. Blank on verso.

Code:   WashingtonDC-mitchell-1866 (Necessary for phone inquiries: 646-320-8650)