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Description

Antique Map of Showing Arctic Exploration Routes of John Ross, William Edward Parry and John Franklin

Scarce map of the Arctic regions, illustrating the discoveries of a number of early 19th Century English explorers.

The map meticulously illustrates the outbound and return routes of each of the explorers, with a large inset of Franklin's Journey from Coppermine River, to The Head of Bathurst Inlet, and Return by Hood's River.

The routes are shown in different colors:

  • Red for Parry in 1821-22
  • Orange for Ross 1818
  • Yellow for Parry 1818-19
  • Franklin's route also in yellow

Rarity

The map apparently only appeared in some of the late Thomson Atlases and is rare on the market. This is our first example in more than 20 years.

Condition Description
Minor offsetting.
John Thomson Biography

John Thomson (1777-ca. 1840) was a commercial map publisher active in Edinburgh. He specialized in guide books and atlases and is primarily known for his Atlas of Scotland (1832) and the New General Atlas, first published in 1817 and reissued for the next quarter century. The New General Atlas was a commercial success—it was also published in Dublin and London—and it compiled existing geographic knowledge in compelling ways for a wide audience.

His Atlas of Scotland introduced new geographic information and was the first large-scale atlas of Scotland to be organized by county. It provided the most-accurate view of Scotland available before the Clearances. Work on the atlas began in 1820 and led to Thomson’s bankruptcy in 1830 due to the high costs of gathering the latest surveys and reviewing the required materials. Despite the publication of the atlas, Thomson declared bankruptcy again in 1835.