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Description

A very early example of one of Traugott Bromme's travel maps of the US.

Early map and scarce U.S.-published item from the most prolific German travel writer on America. The inclusion of railroads, postal routes and canals makes the map of particular note, especially for a non-English language map printed in the US.

Though engraved on stone in Meissen, this map likely was printed in Baltimore for a travel guide to German emigrants and also issued separately. Bromme credits Tanner, Mitchell and the General Post Office. The map includes 17 insets: areas of Niagara Falls, Albany/Saratoga, Montreal, Hudson River, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, New Orleans (plan), Charleston, Baltimore/Washington with its own inset plan of Washington; Philadelphia, Richmond, New York, Providence, Boston...and Pottsville, PA. Even inns are shown.

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.

Condition Description
Minor repaired tears
Traugott Bromme Biography

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.