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Owned by the U.S. Military Attaché in Mexico City

Atlas of excellent maps of the Mexican states including a detailed large folding map of the Baja California peninsula. This atlas was issued by the Mexican government's Dirección de Estudios Geográficos y Climatológicos. Beginning with separate geological and general maps of Mexico, the atlas has maps of each state and territory. Interestingly, each state is represented by both a regular and a relief map.

The brilliantly colored allegorical title page shows an Aztec prince, elevated and superimposed over a map of Mexico, as he paints a map. Incense burners blaze as Aztec calendar motifs provide the background.

The atlas comprises 32 numbered maps, with each state also represented in a separate relief map. Most of the primary maps are styled second editions, dated 1922.

We have seen individually issued maps dated 1920 matching those in the present atlas, but folded, dissected, and backed on linen and bound in individual cloth folders.

The various OCLC records for the atlas strongly suggest that it was first produced in 1922. Given that the separately issued maps (in ostensible first editions) were dated 1920, the fact that the maps contained herein are styled "2a. ed." and dated 1922, suggests that the atlas contains updated maps that were previously issued separately. One would have to compare other extant examples of the atlas to determine if an earlier edition of the atlas appeared before our circa 1922 example.

A 1951 National Research Council report on geographical research in Mexico seems to suggest that the maps were first issued separately:

.... bodies were established to carry on exploration, mapping, and research in the various earth-sciences. These organizations (Comisión de Cartografia, Comisión Geográfico-Exploradora de Republica Mexicana, Observatorio Meteorologico, Comisión Geodesica Mexicana, etc.) were fused into one body (1915/16) which was known for many years as the Dirección de Estudios Geográficos y Climatologicos, and later as the DGMH of the SAF and the DGM of SAG... In 1915 a series of state maps was begun and periodically these maps have been bound into atlases which constitute the last word in official cartography of Mexico. The most recent edition of the Atlas Geografico de la Republica Mexicana is the 25th, issued in 1946, which has several maps of each state (in varying scales).  - Donald D. Brand on Mexican Geography [in:] Geographic Work in Latin America by Latin American Geographers, Government Agencies, and Geographic Societies, prelim. edition issued at Northwestern University (1951), page 22.

Provenance:

Colonel Edward Davis (1874-1964), of Evanston, Illinois. With his name stamped on front cover and with typed letter from Col. Davis laid in which mentions the atlas's maker, "my friend Engineer, Don Pedro Sanchez, who really made this atlas." Given the style of the typography on the spine labels of the binding (and the typo on the front cover: "Lieut. Colonel Edivard Davis") this is likely a presentation binding done in Mexico and given to Davis by Sanchez himself.

It is interesting to note that Davis served as an American military attaché in Mexico City in the late 1920s during the Coolidge administration, a time of heightened American apprehension concerning the possibility that Mexico was becoming a bolshevist outpost. Indeed, Davis authored a special report on subversive activities in Mexico in 1926.

Col. Davis had a distinguished military career, received decorations from five nations during his 40-year service with the Army. After graduating from Cornell University he served in the Spanish-American war in Cuba, where he saw action in the Battle of Santiago. In 1912-15 he served in the Mexican Border region during the tumultuous period of the Mexican Revolution.  He led missions with foreign governments, earning honors from Britain, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, as well as the United States, where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. During World War I, he served as a military observer with British, French, Russian, Italian, Serbian, and Greek troops, and later, as a military attaché in The Hague, where he developed intelligence operations that provided critical information on German troop movements. Colonel Davis retired in 1936 as the commandant of Fort Sheridan before becoming an Illinois state official and a department store executive.

Rarity

Nice complete examples of any version of this atlas are rare in the market. No examples reported sold on RBH. OCLC locates about a dozen examples (over various records).