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1846 Thomas Gamaliel Bradford
$ 2,400.00
Description

Nice example of the rare first edition of Bradford's large map of the Republic of Texas, published only briefly at the beginning of 1838.

In 1835, Bradford issued a small map of the Texas shortly before it became a Republic. In 1838, Bradford issued his Illustrated Atlas, a much larger and more lavish production, which included the present map. This early edition, issued on heavy paper, is perhaps the best of all of the early Republic of Texas maps to appear in an atlas. It includes all of the empressario land grants and colonies, as well as the early county configurations. The map is updated to include many of the new towns and place names in the growing Republic, as well as many early roads and other features.

The first edition of Bradford's map is the only edition to exclusivel show the early land grants in the Republic of Texas, This first edition can be distinguished from later editions, as it is the only edition in outline color, which followed the style of Bradford's earlier small format atlas. Following this first edition, Wiley & Co. of New York was added as a second publisher and the full wash color format was adopted, a format which would be used from 1838 onward. Beginning with the third edition in 1841, Bradford began to include Texas counties, which were superimposed over the land grants shown in the first and second editions.

A nice example of this hard to find first edition, with wide clean margins.

Thomas Gamaliel Bradford Biography

Thomas Gamaliel Bradford (1802-1887) was an American geographic publisher. He hailed from Bradford, Massachusetts and began his publishing career by working for the America Encyclopedia. Then, he edited and republished the Atlas Designed to Illustrate the Abridgement of Universal Geography, Modern & Ancient, which had originally been offered in French by Adrian Balbi. In 1835, he published another atlas, A Comprehensive Atlas: Geographical, Historical & Commercial, and, in 1838, An Illustrated Atlas Geographical, Statistical and Historical of the United States and Adjacent Countries. His interests were primarily in educational publishing and he was one of the first mapmakers to show Texas as an independent country.