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Description

Interesting map of the region bounded by Australia, the Marianas and the South Pacific from Thomson's New General Atlas. Focuses on the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and including some area north and south of the tropics.

Shows the Hawaiian Islands (Sandwich Islands), Society Islands, Solomon Islands, Caroline Islands, New Hebrides, Friendly Islands, the eastern part of New Guinea, and the coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Insets of Owhynee (Big Island of Hawai'i), Karakakooa Bay, Otaheite (Tahiti), and Matavia Bay. Excellent detail along the coast of Australia and New Guinea as well.

A nice example of this map printed on heavy paper with wide margins. One of the few early 19th Century large format commercial atlas maps to treat this area.

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.