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Stock# 110010
Description

Scarce mid 19th Century World atlas, published by a member of the first family of American mapmakers, Charles Morse.

The present atlas is perhaps the scarcest of the Morse family atlases and the final chapter in a publishing history that dated back to the 1780s.

The Morse family, including Jedidiah Morse (1761–1826), Sidney Edwards Morse (1794–1871), Charles W. Morse (1803–1882), Samuel Breese Morse (1791–1872), and Samuel F.B. Morse (1791–1872), played a key role in shaping American geography, cartography, and technological innovation.

Jedidiah, known as the "Father of American Geography," authored foundational works like Geography Made Easy (1784) and The American Universal Geography (1793), which were essential for early U.S. educational curricula. Sidney furthered this legacy by developing cerography, a revolutionary wax-engraving technique that produced affordable maps such as the Cerographic Atlas of the United States (1842), transforming cartographic publishing, following by Morse & Breese's North American Atlas in 1842. The business continued by Charles W. Morse with his General Atlas in 1856.

Samuel F.B. Morse, while not active in the geography business, was famed as the inventor of the telegraph and Morse code.

The following is a list of the maps:

  1. Eastern Hemisphere
  2. Western Hemisphere
  3. Mercator's Projection
  4. Northwest Passage
  5. North America
  6. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
  7. Canada East
  8. Canada West
  9. United States of America
  10. State of Maine
  11. State of New Hampshire
  12. State of Vermont
  13. State of Massachusetts
  14. State of Rhode Island
  15. State of Connecticut
  16. State of New York
  17. State of New Jersey
  18. State of Pennsylvania
  19. State of Maryland
  20. State of Delaware
  21. State of Virginia
  22. State of North Carolina
  23. State of South Carolina
  24. State of Georgia
  25. State of Alabama
  26. State of Florida
  27. State of Mississippi
  28. State of Louisiana
  29. State of Texas
  30. State of Arkansas
  31. State of Tennessee
  32. State of Kentucky
  33. State of Ohio
  34. State of Indiana
  35. State of Michigan
  36. State of Wisconsin
  37. State of Illinois
  38. State of Iowa
  39. State of Missouri
  40. Territories of the United States
  41. State of California
  42. Mexico
  43. West India Islands
  44. South America
  45. Ecuador, New Granada, Venezuela, and Guiana
  46. Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, La Plata, Paraguay, and Uruguay
  47. Europe
  48. British Isles
  49. England
  50. Scotland and Ireland
  51. France and Switzerland
  52. Spain and Portugal
  53. Italy
  54. Austrian Empire
  55. Prussia and West Germany
  56. Holland and Belgium, and Denmark
  57. Sweden and Norway
  58. Russia
  59. Turkey in Europe, Greece, and the Ionian Isles
  60. Africa
  61. Egypt and Nubia
  62. North Africa, South Africa
  63. West Africa
  64. Asia
  65. Turkey in Asia, Persia, Trans-Caucasia, Afghanistan, Belochistan
  66. Hindostan—British India
  67. China
  68. Japan, Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand
  69. Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales
  70. Pacific Ocean 
Condition Description
Folio. Original cloth, neatly rebacked in leather at an early date. Binding cloth a bit sunned, but original gilt title to front cover still bright. Title page age-toned with some staining. Occasional foxing (mainly to text leaves). Pictorial title-page, typographic title page, [2] page (preface) plus 70 color maps (on 65 sheets).