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Description

An American Wall Map Rarity -- Indian Territory Stretching to Canada and Showing the Number of Resettled Native Americans on each Reservation.

Rare 1850 Monk & Sherer map of the United States shortly after the annexation of Upper California & Texas and the beginning of the California Gold Rush, illustrating a rare set of Western territorial boundaries.

Published at a moment in time when mapmakers were increasingly focusing their attention on a still largely unexplored American West, shortly after the end of the Mexican War, the Monk & Sherer includes a number of interesting and important cartographic details, including:

  • Texas of the Texa Boundaries as claimed by Texas shortly before the Compromise of 1850
  • Rare depiction of the Indian Territory stretching to the Canadian border
  • Extremely early appearance of MInnesota Territory
  • Unusually detailed treatment of Native American tribes in the Transmississippi West

First published in 1847 in Cincinnati, map is a tremendous rarity and one of the best Coast to Coast maps of the United States at the conclusion of the Mexican War.   Locations of major battles in the Mexican-American War are denoted with an American flag, distances from various locals are indicated, and illustrations of the continent and its inhabitants line the floral border.

North of Texas, in the southern part of the massive Indian Territory, land parcelled out to resettled Native American tribes is demarcated, an unusual feature which would characterize Monk's maps for the rest of the decade. The populations of these settlements are shown and forts are located. 

Westwards, General Kearney's Route leads to San Diego, which is on a misshapen bay. Fremont's Expedition and the Exploring Expedition are also mapped. A very early depiction of the Mormon Settlement on the Great Salt Lake appears. In California, the route of the Missions extends northwards. The northernmost part of Washington is slightly out of the scope of the map.

This is the third edition of this map, which is the first to include an increased focus on the gold regions. In the lower-left, an inset shows the route from New York to San Francisco, either across Panama or around Cape Horn.

The Indian Territory

This piece includes an important mapping of the plains. In the northeast, it includes a very early appearance of "Minesota Territory" in its first territorial configuration, having been established March 3, 1849. However, it is the mapping of Native American settlements in the Plains that makes this map an important record of this brief period of resettlement.

The map names the tribal lands of the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Pawnees, Kanzas, Delaware, Omaha, Sioux, and Cheyenne indigenous peoples (among others). For those that were resettled, their native lands are denoted, e.g., the Cherokee are "From Georgia." Populations of each territory are named. Cutting through these territories are routes, including Lewis and Clark's, the Emigrant Oregon Route, and Fremont's outward route from 1844. 

An Oversized Texas Prior to the Compromise of 1850

The large Texas configuration sits square in the center of this map. This would be one of the final maps to show an enlarged Texas, as the Compromise of 1850 settled Texas's debts in return for Texas abandoning its claim to a large part of New Mexico.

The depiction of Texas includes several blue lines bisecting the state that bear an uncertain implication. These may possibly be alternate borders that were under consideration for Texas's statehood configuration. For example, one follows the New Mexico River and cuts off most of northern Texas, similar to the oldest maps of Texas.

California

The Californian coastline remains in an extremely primitive depiction. San Diego Bay is misshapen, with an enormous Point Loma and no Coronado. The Treaty Line with Mexico places most of South Bay in Baja. Northwards, San Pedro Bay is equally over-enlarged, stretching well east of Los Angeles.

The map also includes a large Tule Lake, which at the time was far larger than in modern times. Mountain Lake is an early appearance of Lake Tahoe, one of two early names given to it (the other being Bigler Lake).

Rarity

We trace only two institutional examples of any edition of this map, with the 1847 edition held at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and the 1849 edition held at the Michigan State University Library. We trace only a single example that has traded on the market in dealer catalogs, auction records, or Rare Book Hub - in 2010.

Condition Description
Original wash-color. Varnished, with some related cracking and loss, stabilized. Some staining to right. White silk band surrounding the map.
Reference
Ristow American Maps and Mapmakers, p. 452