Mapping the Peoples of the World from a Mid-19th-Century Perspective
Ethnographic Atlas + Profusely Illustrated Text with 50 Fine Hand-Colored Plates of Native Peoples
With Eight Color Plates of Ojibway and Sioux After George Catlin
This rare and significant 19th-century Anglo-American ethnographic atlas and text was published in London and New York in 1851 by James Cowles Prichard. The atlas, offered here in the second edition (1851), consists of six double-page, hand-colored maps of the continents and the Pacific. These maps were designed to complement the accompanying text and plates, also by Prichard: The Natural History of Man was first published in 1843 and is here present in the third enlarged edition (1848). The remarkable maps in the atlas provide a visual representation of the distribution of various races across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania.
Here is a brief description of each of the six maps based on the information provided in the explanatory note:
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Ethnographical Map of Asia: This map is partly based on Klaproth's map from his Sprach-Atlas and his work Asia Polyglotta. It has been updated with additional information, particularly in India, to include facts unknown during Klaproth's time.
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Ethnographical Map of Europe: This map is an entirely new construction, depicting the earliest known positions of major European races. It draws on the authorities cited in "The Natural History of Man" and the third volume of "Researches into the Physical History of Mankind."
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Ethnographical Map of Africa: This map is also an entirely new creation, showing the divisions of races in Africa. The authorities for these divisions can be found in "The Natural History of Man" and the second volume of "Researches into the Physical History of Mankind."
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Ethnographical Map of North America: This map is based on the best available map at the time, which was published by Albert Gallatin in his work on the aboriginal races of America. It includes additional information from sources such as Clavigero, Alexander Von Humboldt, and Dr. Scouler to fill in the areas beyond Gallatin's survey.
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Ethnographical Map of South America: This map is primarily a copy of the one published by M. d'Orbigny in his work on South American nations, which is frequently cited in "The Natural History of Man."
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Ethnographical Map of the Nations of the Great Ocean and Surrounding Countries: This new map has been constructed using numerous sources to depict the distribution of races in Oceania and the surrounding regions.
These six maps provide a comprehensive visual aid to understanding the distribution of various races throughout the world during the time they were created, offering invaluable insights into the study of human history.
Ethnographic Color Plates - Including Several after Catlin
The text volume is richly illustrated with 50 fine color engraved plates of native peoples from various parts of the world (including several exhibiting fine aquatint color and varnish). A significant section of these plates relates to American native groups: with a plate of Pacific islanders after Choris, and 2 plates of Native Americans from California. There are sixteen fine color portraits of North American Indians including the Ojibway and Sioux nations. Notably eight of the color plate portraits of North American Native Americans are identified as being by Catlin, and at least six additional plates are likely after Catlin. The others plates cover South American, African, Asian peoples plus New Zealanders and Aleutians. Other peoples covered are the Chinese, Malaysians, and Egyptians.
Rarity
Nice examples of the complete set (Atlas of maps and text with all the plates) in excellent condition are scarce in the market. Overlooked by many bibliographers (not in Tooley, English Books with Coloured Plates: 1790-1860, for example).
States
The first edition was published in 1843. This is the first issue of the second edition of the atlas, published in 1851. There is a second issue of the second edition that was published in London in 1861. The text volume is the third edition of 1848, which expanded the number of color plates to 50 from the earlier complement of 36 and 44 in the first and second editions, respectively. The fourth edition of the text did not appear until 1855.
James Cowles Prichard FRS (11 February 1786 – 23 December 1848) was a British physician and pioneering ethnologist whose work laid foundational principles for physical anthropology. Educated in medicine, Prichard applied scientific rigor to the study of human diversity, arguing in his influential Researches into the Physical History of Mankind (1813) and The Natural History of Man (1843) that all human races belonged to a single species, an early argument for monogenism. He proposed that human variation arose from environmental factors over time—ideas that anticipated aspects of evolutionary theory. Notably, Prichard suggested Africa as the likely origin of humanity, challenging prevailing racial hierarchies of the period. His interdisciplinary work bridged medicine, linguistics, and anthropology, and he is also remembered for introducing the term “moral insanity” in psychiatric theory.