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Description

Russian Mapping of the Pacific and Bering Strait. Gavril Sarychev's Chart of the Bering Strait.

Engraved Russian-language map of far-western Alaska (then Russian America) and far-eastern Siberia, covering the Bering Strait (Беринговъ Проливъ).  Bathymetry rendered with soundings, topography shown with hachuring.

The present map is chart number four from Gavril Sarychev's Атласъ Сѣверной Части Восточнаго Океана (Atlas of the Northern Part of the Eastern [i.e. Pacific] Ocean) which was published in St. Petersburg in 1826.

Sarychev's Atlas was a pivotal work in the mapping of Pacific Ocean, putting in print much important Russian information about the Northern Pacific for the first time. Two major Russian atlases on the subject followed over twenty years later with those of Kashevarov (1854-62 circa) and Tebenkov (1852). But Sarychev is rightly considered the father of Russian mapping of the region.

According to Rare Book Hub, the Sarychev's Atlas has not appeared for sale at auction.

George Davidson's Copy: Mapping Russian America

In 1867 George Davidson, the famed American geographer was tasked with preparing a report on Alaska, in preparation for its potential purchase by the United States. Davidson availed himself of the best maps of Alaska, including those by Tebenkov, Kashevarov, and Sarychev.  This is one of the charts that Davidson acquired as part of his due diligence, and it bears his initials on the verso.  The fact that the only example of this chart that we have encountered was itself owned by Davidson in 1867 is a testament to the extreme rarity.

Historical Context: Russian American in the 1820s

From Wikipedia:

In 1799, Shelikhov's son-in-law, Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov, acquired a monopoly on the American fur trade from Czar Paul I and formed the Russian-American Company. As part of the deal, the Tsar expected the company to establish new settlements in Alaska and carry out an expanded colonization program.

By 1804, Alexander Baranov, now manager of the Russian–American Company, had consolidated the company's hold on the American fur trade following his victory over the local Tlingit clan at the Battle of Sitka. Despite these efforts the Russians never fully colonized Alaska. The Russian monopoly on trade was also being weakened by the Hudson's Bay Company, which set up a post on the southern edge of Russian America in 1833.

In 1818 management of the Russian-American Company was turned over to the Imperial Russian Navy and the Ukase of 1821 banned foreigners from participating in the Alaskan economy. It soon entered into the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1825 which allowed British merchants to trade in Alaska. The Convention also settled most of the border between Alaska and British North America.

The Russo-American Treaty of 1824, which banned American merchants above 54° 40' north latitude, was widely ignored and the Russians' hold on Alaska weakened further.

Provenance:
George Davidson's copy, with his initials on verso;
Acquired by San Francisco Bookseller Warren Howell and sold to the previous owner in the 1970s.

Davidson acquired Russian charts in Sitka in 1867. His interactions with Russian geographers and his use of Tebenkov's charts is covered in Professor William Forrest King's Ph.D. dissertation defended in 1973.

Condition Description
Restored at to margin, with loss of printed geographical information in two places, expertly repaired on verso.