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A very early example of Traugott Bromme's map of the United States, including a fine detailed example of the Republic of Texas, published by JE Woerl.
Bromme was one of the most prolific German Travel writers from the 1830s to 1850s. His guides to German Emigrants, issued in many forms and abridgements, are now highly coveted. In a few of these guides, Bromme offered deluxe editions of the Guide, with a map published by JE Woerl. This is the earliest example of the map which we have ever seen, predating the examples which show counties in Texas. Rumsey has high marks for the map, calling it a beautifully engraved map of the US, from Coast to Coast, based upon Brue's map of Mexico from 1834 and Brue's Map of North America from 1833, although lacking Smith's Route.
The cartography is pre-Fremont. Excellent detail is present in the Pacific Northwest, Missouri Valley and Southest. Texas is shown as a newly formed Republic, but pre-dating the appearance of counties. Excellent detail along the Rio Colorado, especially in the largely mythical headwaters west of the Rocky Mountains. Two Salt Lakes are prominently shown, along with the remnants of several mythical western rivers. The Puget Sound, Columbia and Frasier River treatment is also excellent. Shows many Indian Tribes, Forts, Roads, Lakes, Rivers, Mountains and other places of interest. Massive Missouri Territory dominates the mid-Continent.
Traugott Bromme was a traveler and publisher best known for this immigration guides for German migrants. Born in Anger, in Saxony, Traugott was orphaned at a young age. He emigrated to the United States at age eighteen. There he studied medicine, traveled extensively, and supposedly served as a surgeon in the nascent Colombian Navy and was imprisoned in Haiti. He returned to Germany in 1824, where he became a partner in his brother-in-law’s bookshop in Dresden. He began to publish books on the topic of immigration at this time.
In 1833 Bromme returned to the United States, this time to Baltimore where he took up a partnership in a publishing house, Scheld and Company. Here he began to publish his guidebooks targeting German immigration to America, which included maps after those of Henry Schenck Tanner. By 1840, he had again returned to Germany, starting a bookshop in Stuttgart. In 1846 he once again sailed to America, spending three years there. By 1849, he was back in Germany and seemingly returned to publishing. All of his outputs were geographic in nature and include several wall maps.
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