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Rare late edition of Jacob De Cordova's important map of Texas and the first edition to be revised to identify the place of publication as Austin.

The most obvious update is that the inset map has changed from a rectangle to an oval, still showing the Western States from the Colton U.S. map.

Rumsey notes that this 1867 edition of the map is not listed in any of the standard references.

Jacob De Cordova (1808 - 1868) was one of the first major land speculators in Texas. He hired Robert Creuzbaur, of the Texas General Land Office, to compile this map for promotional purposes. It was the first map of the state to be constructed through the use of the files of the Land Office, which was responsible for keeping a record of all land transactions in the state. De Cordova is said to have spent a great deal of time in the saddle, personally studying Texas real estate. The land office was especially important, as Texas had been allowed to keep its public lands when it entered the Union, being the only state allowed to do so, and the Land Office records were the only reasonably accurate source for the topography of some 250 million acres in the public domain. Creuzbaur gave equal attention to the more settled eastern parts of the state, and the map is the best, most detailed record of settlement in Texas during the period. Measuring nearly three feet square, it was the first large-scale map of Texas.

De Cordova's map was originally published in Houston in 1849, with subsequent Houston editions issued in 1851, 1853, and 1854. Publication rights were subsequently sold to J. H. Colton, who published editions in New York from 1856 onwards. This 1861 edition is the best cartographic record of Texas at the beginning of the Civil War. It incorporates extensive revisions with new counties, towns, railroads, roads, and topographical detail, particularly in the little-known western parts of the state.

R. S. Martin noted that without question, "the map published by Jacob De Cordova in 1849 best summarizes the geographical information available about Texas immediately after the Mexican War...the map presents a remarkably accurate and detailed rendering of the area south and east of San Antonio." But north and west of that point, however, "the data are scarce and the features sparse." However, the later editions were carefully revised to account for new information, particularly in West Texas, and it is this fact that makes them so valuable.

This edition is not in the Texas State Archives, which has those of 1851, 1856, 1866 and 1872 (Day), nor is it in the Library of Congress, which has the editions of 1849, 1851, 1853, 1856, and 1857 (Phillips, America), or in the Rosenberg Library, which has the 1849, 1851, and 1856 editions (Taliaferro); and not in University of Texas at Arlington, which has only the 1849 edition.

We note no examples of this edition (or any edition) at auction published after 1861.