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Description

Unrecorded Rare Early Edition of This Enduring Wall Map of North America

Fine example of the rare 1825 edition of Wyld's massive map of North America, which includes the extra panel at the bottom, adding Central America.  

As described below, Wyld's map of North America was first issued in 1823.  Between 1823 and the 1870s, the map was periodically revised and updated.  An earlier state, issued in 1820 by Faden also exists, meaning that the history of the map spans six decades, almost certainly the single most enduring wall map of North America ever published.

John Wyld was one of the most prolific publishers of separately issued maps during the 19th Century. This 6 (and later 7) sheet map of North America is a testament to Wyld's publishing accumen.  

The present map reflects a marvelous mix of information derived from 2 of the most important maps of the period, John Melish's map of the United States (first issued in 1816 and periodically updated into the 1820s) and Aaron Arrowsmith's map of North America, first issued in 1796 and periodically updates into the early 1830s.

As noted by the title, Wyld works to incorporate the discoveries of numerous important explorers, covering explorations from the Polar regions (MacKenzie, Hearne, Ross, Parry & Franklin), early American explorers, including Lewis & Clark, Pike and Bouchette, coastal explorations by Vancouver, and the remarkable work of Humboldt.

Other explorations which are not mentioned by name in the map title are in evidence.  From Arrowsmith, Wyld introduces the information from the Escalante-Dominguez expedition of 1777 which provided more information about the region between California and the Rocky Mountains than any other source up to John Fremont in the 1840s.  Curiously however, Wyld misspells Escalante's name (Velez Ascalante) and mentions a Father Antonio Velasquez (however  Francisco Atanasio Domínguez was Escalante's partner on the expedition).  The Domínguez–Escalante expedition was a Spanish expedition conducted in 1776 Domínguez and Escalante, seeking an overland route from Santa Fe, New Mexico to the mission in Monterey, California. Domínguez, Vélez de Escalante, and Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco, acting as the expedition's cartographer, traveled with ten men from Santa Fe through many unexplored portions of the American West, including present-day western Colorado, Utah, and northern Arizona. Along part of the journey, they were aided by three indigenous guides of the Timpanogos tribe (Shoshone or Ute people).  

In the same area, Humboldt noted the legendary "First Settlemt. of the Azteques from Aztlan in 1160", with a second set of "Ruins of Houses, second settlement of the Azteques, from when they passsed to Tarahumara & Hileicolbuacan (Culeican)."

Further north,  an exceptional treatment of the Northwest is given, incorporating the basic footprint left by Lewis & Clark, with significant improvements by the Hudson Bay Company, Northwest Company and the American Fur Traders Hunt & Stuart, who first reported the Oregon Trail in 1821.  Lewis & Clark's route is shown.

The detail in Texas and the Transmississippi West reflects Wyld's attention to detail and synthesis of the best of Arrowsmith, Melish, Lewis & Clark, Pike, Long and others.

The History of the Faden/Wyld Map of North America

The evolution of Wyld's map of North America is truly fascinating, and reflects Wyld's commercial savy. The map was periodically updated in the 1820 and 1830s. With the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846, Wyld issued a special 4-sheet edition of the map (eliminating the top 2 sheets and the bottom central America sheet), with a new title ( Mexico the British Possessions in North America and the United States . . . 1846), which included a number of geographical revisions in the regions depicted and focused on the battlegrounds of the Mexican American War. Following the resolution of the Mexican-American War, Wyld re-issued his map of North America, showing the boundaries as established by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and with significant updates in the polar region, Alaska and northern Canada.

Rumsey notes:

The first edition [by Wyld], listed in Phillips but not by Stevens and Tree or Wheat [was published in 1823] . . . A large impressive map showing with great accuracy the recent discoveries in the north west passage, but wildly off in the American southwest - Wheat: "a large and beautiful map, excellent in all respects save for its southwestern geography." In the southwest, Wyld adds many mountain ranges that were purely speculative - probably just to fill in blank spaces in the map (unlike Arrowsmith). In northwestern Texas is a curious note on the topography of the area attributed to "Mellish" which is copied from a pre-1822 edition of his large map of the United States. Comparing this edition to the derived map of 1846, "Mexico, the British Possessions...," one sees many changes in the northern areas and few in the southwest. Stevens and Tree list editions of 1824, 1827/8, 1838, and 1851/56.

In 1849, with the discovery of Gold In California, Wyld again saw commercial opportunity. Wyld again issued a section of his 7-sheet map of North America, under the title The United States Of North America With Part of the British Possessions And Mexico . . . 1849 . For this map, Wyld completely re-worked California and incorporated for the first time the information from John Fremont's seminal map of Oregon and Upper California. The following year, Wyld would again release a revised edition of his 7 sheet map of North America, retaining the changes made in the US Gold Rush map of 1849, but with additional updates in both the US and again in the northern sections of the larger North America map which had not been offered as part of the US Gold Rush map of 1849.

While we have not attempted a complete cataloguing of all of the later editions, we note that Wyld issued editions of his map of North America in 1860 and again in 1875. We suspect, although we have not made the analysis, that some of the Civil War maps issued by Wyld during the early 1860s are probably again fragments of his larger map of North America.

In addition to the editions listed by Rumsey, we note edtions identified by OCLC as havng been published in 1854, in the 1860 and "1870s." The Rumsey collection also includes an 1875 edition of the map.

In December 2000, Sotheby's offered a map which would appear to be a Faden edition of this map, dated 1820 and described as follows:

North America-Faden, W. Map of North America from 20 degrees to 80 degrees north latitude exhibiting the recent discoveries, geographical and nautical. London: Willam Faden, 1820. Total dimensions if joined 1480 x 1650mm., large engraved wall-map in 6 sheets, original outline colour . . . 

Condition Description
7 sheets, joined as 3. A few minor repaired tears.
James Wyld Biography

James Wyld Sr. (1790-1836) was a British cartographer and one of Europe’s leading mapmakers. He made many contributions to cartography, including the introduction of lithography into map printing in 1812.

William Faden, another celebrated cartographer, passed down his mapmaking business to Wyld in 1823. The quality and quantity of Faden’s maps, combined with Wyld’s considerable skill, brought Wyld great prestige.

Wyld was named geographer to Kings George IV and William IV, as well as HRH the Duke of York. In 1825, he was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was one of the founding members of the Royal Geographical Society in 1830. Also in 1830, his son, James Wyld Jr., took over his publishing house. Wyld Sr. died of overwork on October 14, 1836.

James Wyld Jr. (1812-87) was a renowned cartographer in his own right and he successfully carried on his father’s business. He gained the title of Geographer to the Queen and H.R.H. Prince Albert. Punch (1850) described him in humorous cartographic terms, “If Mr. Wyld’s brain should be ever discovered (we will be bound he has a Map of it inside his hat), we should like to have a peep at it, for we have a suspicion that the two hemispheres must be printed, varnished, and glazed, exactly like a pair of globes.”