Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
This item has been sold, but you can enter your email address to be notified if another example becomes available.
Description

The Footprint of Modern St. Louis

Fine single page map of the area around St. Louis, which accompanied his Geographical Description of the United States . . .,  covering more than half of modern day St. Louis and suburbs.

The area around St. Louis extends to just north of the Missouri River and the towns of Alton and Bellefontaine, along with Walker's Ferry on the Missouri River.  To the south, the map extends beyond Cahokia to the mouth of the Meramec River. The roads to St. Charles and Edwardsville are shown.

Melish noted that at the time, St. Louis was the largest city west of the Mississippi, with a reported census of 5000 inhabitants and 550 houses, “of which a great proportion were well constructed buildings of brick and stone.” He reported that St. Louis, “Standing near the confluence of such mighty streams, the produce of an almost immeasurable extent of back country must flow into it, and that country must be supplied from it, with merchandise.” 

John Melish Biography

John Melish (1771-1822) was the most prominent American mapmaker of his generation, even though his cartographic career lasted only a decade. Melish was born in Scotland; he moved to the West Indies in 1798 and then to the United States in 1806. By 1811, he had settled in Philadelphia and published Travels through the United States of America, in the years 1806 & 1807, and 1809, 1810, & 1811, which was richly illustrated with maps.

Melish created several regional maps of the highest quality, as well as the Military & Topographical Atlas of the United States (Philadelphia, 1813, expanded 1815). The latter work is widely considered to be the finest cartographic publication to come out of the War of 1812.

By far his best-known work is his monumental map of the United States of 1816, Map of the United States with the contiguous British and Spanish Possessions. He began working on the map in 1815 and sent it to Thomas Jefferson for comment in 1816. Jefferson enthusiastically reviewed the map and returned it with his edits. Jefferson later hung an example of the map in the Entrance Hall of Monticello and sent it to associates in Europe.

Melish’s finished product was the first map of the United States to extend to the Pacific Ocean. After its publication in 1816, Melish ensured the map was as up-to-date as possible; it was reissued in 25 known states published between 1816 and 1823. The map captured the then rapidly changing geography of the United States, as well as various boundary disputes, treaties, and expansion.