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Description

Second State of Charles Herbert's Sonoma

A fine example of Herbert's map of the State of Sonora, colored by Districts. The Royal Geographical Society in its 1885 Proceedings remarked of this map: "This map...is drawn on a larger scale than any yet published, and contains details not to be found in other maps of this same country" (p. 413).

The map was apparently intended for the use of potential investors or land purchasers in Sonora, especially those interested in mines, which along with coal fields, are specifically noted.

On the whole, this is a beautifully detailed map of the area that sets forth its physical features, towns, roads, rivers, ranches, and railroads in minute form. The map also shows the Eastern coast of Baja, California, and the far southern part of Arizona. It represented a genuine advance in the mapping of Mexico, which was geographically poorly understood at the time.

Although praising Herbert's map of Sonora as "good," Merrill, concerned primarily with mining interests, decries the lack of accuracy in Mexican maps available at the time. Because of its emphasis on mines, this map, as Merrill intimates, would have been an important one at the time of its publication.

Provenance:

The present example includes the following inscription:

Presented to George F. Woodward by his Friend E. W. Scott, Esq.

The map includes a small booksellers plate "Tauzy, Levy & Co., Foreign Booksellers, 6 Post Street, San Francisco, Cal."

George F. Woodward, a prominent rancher and miner in Arizona and Sonora from the 1880s onward. Contemporary reports place him in both the Tombstone area and Sonora. Woodward's ranch in Guasaguas was the site of several encounters during the so-called "Geronimo Campaign" (1884-85), and Woodward was known to have killed one of Geronimo's scouts on his ranch in 1884.

E.W. Scott would appear to have been active in the Gold mining industry in California, Oregon and Sonora from the 1870s onward.

Condition Description
Original 6 x 4 inch brown cloth covers with title in gilt on front of map. Booksellers plate "Tauzy, Levy & Co. "Foreign Booksellers 6 Post Street, San Francisco, Cal."