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Description

A Legendary Texas Rarity From One Of Texas's Most Important Mapmakers

Fine large format map of Texas, published by Charles Pressler, one of the most important mid-19th Texas mapmakers.

Pressler's map of Texas is one of the largest and most detailed separately published maps of the period, and perhaps the most up to date and comprehensive treatments of Texas at the conclusion of the Civil War. The map draws from the information obtained by Pressler during his career as a mapmaker and surveyor for the Texas General Land Office, beginning in 1850. As noted below, Pressler was the primary contributor to Jacob de Cordova's seminal map of Texas, first issued in 1849.

The map shows counties, cities, towns, forts, rivers, post offices, roads, and the locations of several Indian tribes. Includes an inset of "Northern Part of Texas". This map is a second revision of "Pressler's Map of the State of Texas" published by James Root & Company in 1858.

The map is reduced from a 12 sheet map of Texas by Pressler, created at the General Land Office, prepared under the direction of Brv't Maj. G.L. Gillespie, Capt. Engrs. U.S.A., Chief Engineer Mil. Division of the Gulf; compiled and drawn Oct. 1865 and for stone June 1867 by Helmuth Holtz.

Charles Pressler

A native of Prussia, Charles Pressler studied cartography and surveying in Weisensee before joining the Adelsverein and immigrating to Texas in 1846. Almost immediately he began work for Jacob De Cordova, leading his surveying expeditions and assisting him on his well-known 1849 map of Texas. In 1850 he began work with the General Land Office, a post he would hold for 49 years, only interrupted by his time spent in the Confederate engineering department, during the Civil War. After the war, he returned to the General Land Office.

Rarity

The map is rare. OCLC locates 1 example of the 1867 edition (Houston Museum of Fine Arts) and 1 example of the 1868 edition (Yale - Streeter Collection). The University of Texas Arlington Map Portal also illustrates an example of the map.

Condition Description
Flattened and archivally backed. Repaired along several folds where the map was previously split, with minor loss at fold intersections.