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Rare Map of the United States with Moravian Settlements and Unusual Western Territories.
This rare map, created in 1809 by C.G. Reichard, provides a detailed and unique representation of the United States' territorial layout in the early 19th century. Published in Nürnberg by Homann’s Heirs, the map employs the Albers projection, detailed topographical detail, information about the Moravian Church's expansion in the United States, and an idiosyncratic rendering of the territories west of the Mississippi.
The territories west of the Mississippi River—Orleans, Mississippi, and Louisiana—are particularly noteworthy. Orleans Territory occasionally appears on U.S. maps from the first decade of the 19th century; it would eventually become the state of Louisiana in 1812. The Mississippi Territory was originally created in 1798 from the western lands of Georgia. However, on this map, it refers to the southern portion of Louisiana Territory. The Louisiana Territory itself encompassed the land west of the Mississippi River between 41 and 45 degrees north latitude.
The map’s legend, or Erklärung der Zeichen, provides a key to interpret various symbols, indicating cities by population size, forts, Native American villages, and resources like silver, copper, and iron deposits. Furthermore, it delineates major trade and postal routes across the country, along with distinguishing Washington, D.C., with a specific typeface to underscore its status as the national capital. Notably, certain regions are marked as colonies or settlements of the Moravian Church (Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine), shown with red underlining, signaling the spread of specific religious communities.
In the early 19th century, the Moravian Church in America was focused on missionary work and community-building, with a strong emphasis on education, spirituality, and social welfare. Originating from the Moravian movement in central Europe, the church had established settlements in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Ohio, where they created close-knit communities centered around shared religious practices and communal living.
An interesting comparison can be drawn with Daniel Sotzmann's Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika, published in Nürnberg five years earlier, in 1804.
Rarity
Very rare on the market. Goodspeeds had an example of the 1809 in 1971. Old World Auctions sold this edition in 2003. Other than that no copies in RBH nor in OldMaps.com nor in OCLC.
Christian Gottlieb Reichard (1758-1837) was a German cartographer. Reichard studied law in Leipzig and found work as a town clerk in Bad Lobenstein. He had great personal interest in geography, history, and cartography, hobbies which gained him more renown than law. However, even after he began making maps, he continued working his clerk job, which gave him the financial stability to support his family.
Reichard is best known for his work on his Atlas des Ganzen Erdkreises in der Central Projection (Atlas of the Whole World in the Central Projection) in 1803 and the Orbis terrarum antiquus (Atlas of the Ancient World) of 1824. He is also likely the first published cartographer to adopt the Albers conic projection, in his map Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-America, nach den sichersten Bestimmungen, neuesten Nachrichten und Charten, in der Alber’schen Projection entworfen, (The United States of North America, after the safest regulations, latest news and charts, designed in the Alberian projection), where he references the Albers projection by name.
Reichard’s work was known by his contemporaries as highly accurate, and in fact this descriptor still holds up today. This accuracy, along with his skill, made him very publishable, and he worked on a number of atlases with other cartographers, such as Steiler’s Handatlas. Reichard’s style is simple but includes great detail, making his maps both recognizable at a glance and engaging upon deeper study.
