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Rare Lewis & Clark era Wall Map of America

Nice example of the first state of Laurie & Whittle's extremely rare wall map of America, published in London in 1809.

Published shortly after the Louisiana Purchase (1804) and the return of Lewis & Clark from the overland expedition to the Pacific (1804-1806), the map illustrates America at a fascinating moment in time.  Brazil had become the new home of the Portuguese monarcy (1808) and the first revolutions in South America were fomenting by juntas opposed to colonial rule (1809).  Father Hidalgo would declare independence in Mexico the following year (September 1810).  Russia would establish New Archangel as the Capital of Russian America in 1808 and begin its expansion into California in 1809, with Fort Ross constructed in 1812. Lewis & Clark's official map would not be released until 1814.

Against this backdrop, much of North America was still largely unmapped and thinly explored.  The Transmississippi West was still largely the domain of Fur Traders and Missionaries.  While the northern regions were a bit better known and traversed by the Hudsons Bay Company and Northwest Company, even the Old Northwest Territory, which was soon to see the creation of Michigan Territory, Indiana Territory and Illinois Territory was largely unexplored and unsettled, as were vast tracks of land south of the Ohio River in Kentucky, Tennesse and the newly formed Mississippi Territory.  Florida was still a Spanish Colonial possession.

The map illustrates a speculative understanding of the discoveries of Lewis & Clark, coming several years after their return, but a full 5 years before the map of the Lewis & Clark expedition was finally released in 1809.    Two large notes show the "Course of the Missouri River according to reports of the Indians" and "[t]hese Rives in all probability fall into the R. Missouri are yet unexplored." 

The text near Alaska notes:

From the Report of the Expedition, made by order of the Government of the United States, under the command of Captns. Lewis & Clarke, in 1804, 5, 6, it appears that the source of the Missouri, among the Rocky Mountains, is  3120 miles from its mouth, and is navigable, in canoes, to 2 miles from the extend of that distance; also that it is but one mile from the head-spring of this river to the source of one  of the tributary Streams of the Columbia.  The latter appears to rise as far to the North as 58° or 60° and, being confimed between two ridges of mountains, pursues a south easterly course to latitude 46° whence it proceeds to sea, by a westerly course of about 400 miles.  No Map has hitherto appeared which exhibits the course of these Rivers (1809).

It is also noteworthy that Laurie & Whittle illustrate Louisiana Territory as incorporating roughly the northern half of what would become the Republic of Texas, illustrating the poorly understood bounds of the Louisiana Purchase and setting the stage for the disputed boundary that would not be settled until the Adams Onis Treaty in 1819.

In California, a good understanding of the location of the Spanish Missions is illustrated, with a few curious additions.  

West of the Missisippi River and on the Lower Missouri River, the map provides considerablly more detail than can be found on Arrowsmith's 1808 map of America.   

States of the Map / Rarity

There are apparently two states of the map, 1809 and 1823.

Both states are extremely rare.  OCLC locates 2 examples of the 1809 (Multnomah County Library and the Spanish National Library Ministry of Defense Collection.

AMPR notes 1 example, sold by Martayan Lan in 1991.  RBH notes 1 auction record (Christies, 2011, noting that the map was not in the British Library).