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The only known example of a separately issued example of the Southern Sheet for Abraham Bradley's postal map of the United States, one of the most important maps early maps of the United States and a landmark in the both the history of cartography and American Postal history.

The present example of the map is the first edition, first state of the map and the only known unbound single sheet example of this southern sheet. This newly discovered map raises new questions about the printing and publication history of Bradleys' Postal Map. Most notably, it strongly suggests that the sheet was intended as a separate issue, making it the earliest separately issued map of the Southern States published in America.

Bradley's map is normally found as a 4-sheet map, although there is also a single known example of the Northeastern Sheet which is believed to have been separately issued. This sheet and the northeastern sheet were joined in a way that required an more or less horizontal cut near the Del-Mar-Va peninsula and an irregular cut along the east-west joining point.

First issued in 1796, Bradley's postal map is among the most importan maps in American history. Published in the 18th Century, it is one of only 4 large format maps of the United States to have been published in America prior to 1800, two of which (maps by Abel Buell and John Norman) are unlikely to ever again appear on the market.

The map provides and exceptionally detailed look at the post offices and postal routes of the Southern States, as they existed at the end of the 18th Century, locating every post office then in operation.

In 1796, Bradley published his first Map of the United States, Exhibiting the Post-Roads, the Situations, Connections, and Distances of the Post-Offices. At that time, less than 15 years after the end of the War of Independence, most citizens of the fledgling United States still had no real conception of the magnitude of their young nation. Bradley's postal map, with its schedule chart, was a perfect combination of Bradley's skills and obsession for precision scheduling. This unique U.S. map was on public display in almost every large post office in the country and provided citizens with an impressive visual depiction of the scope of the United States at a time when the search for a national culture and national identity was at its height, after the final and official separation from Great Britain. The inclusion of stagecoach schedules promoted, encouraged and broadened popular notions of the concept of time beyond seasonal and religious practices.

For many colonial residents, the Bradley's map was the iconic symbol of a unified United States. Citizens began to consider (and later demand adherence to) weekly and daily notations of time, as measured by the institution of regularly-scheduled mail service.

A fascinating historical footnote for Bradley's map was its use by Louis Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, future King of France (1830-1848), during his travels in America. Louis Philippe spent more than three years in American exile, from 1796 to 1800. At the beginning of his exile in 1796, he and his two brothers visited an aging George Washington at Mount Vernon, where they revealed their desire to explore the mysterious interior of America. Washington presented them with a copy of Bradley's map and outlined a route for the brothers in red. The map became a favorite keepsake for Louis Philippe, who years later, as King of France, would proudly produce the map for visitors and share the story of how Washington had redlined the map in his own hand for a young Louis Philippe and his brothers.

The present map is the first state of the 1796 edition.

18th Century editions of the map (of which there were 4) are of the utmost rarity. The last auction record for an 18th Century edition of the map was in 1976. The Caldwell & Buehler articles notes only one known example of the first edition, first state (Library of Congress) and 4 complete examples of the first edition, second state (American Geographical Society, American Philosophical Society, Library of Congress and New York Public Library.

The present example is the only known example of the Southern Sheet to appear as a separate issue.