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1856 Joseph Hutchins Colton
$ 475.00
Description

Territory of Colona

A cornerstone map, exceptionally detailed and showing Fremont's 1844 and 1845 Routes, the Spanish trail from Los Angeles to New Mexico, Kearney's Route, Col. Washington's Expedition, the Cimarron Route and the location where Capt. Gunnison was ambushed by the Ute Indians.

Locates numerous forts, roads, Indian information and the proposed route for the Pacific RR. It also identifies a host of early geographical features, including several rarely referenced river sinks and other features in Nevada.

At least 5 counties cross the map from California to the Rockies and beyond.

States of the Map

Twelve states of the map were published. These include:

  • State 1: 1855. Publishers not mentioned in title block.
  • State 2: 1855-1856. By J. H. Colton 7 Co. NO. 172 William St. New York. 31° W, above neatline: Mexico.
  • State 3: 1856. By J. H. Colton 7 Co. NO. 172 William St. New York. 31° W, above neatline: Chihuahua.
  • State 4: 1857-1858. Plate number 53 (most other states is 51). Otherwise the same as State 3.
  • State 5: 1859. By J. H. Colton 7 Co. NO. 172 William St. New York. 31° W, above neatline: Chihuahua. Arizona introduced in faint block letters at  33° N.
  • State 6: 1859. By Johnson & Browning, 172 William St. New York. Bright red horizontal line at 34° showing a potential New Mexico/Arizona division.
  • State 7: 1859-1860. By J. H. Colton 7 Co. NO. 172 William St. New York. Bright red horizontal line near  34° showing a potential New Mexico/Arizona division. Shows Colona.
  • State 8: 1860. By Johnson & Browning, 172 William St. New York. Colona inserted arcing through eastern Colorado.
  • State 9: 1860. Identical to State 7, but with Denver City shown.
  • State 10: 1861-1862. Title changed to include Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. Arcing "Colorado" and "Nevada" placed.
  • State 10: 1862. Title changed to include Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. Colorado and Nevada separate, no counties.
  • State 10: 1863. Title changed to include Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. Arizona and New Mexico have near modern boundaries. Plate number 67 (most other states is 51).
Joseph Hutchins Colton Biography

G. W. & C. B. Colton was a prominent family firm of mapmakers who were leaders in the American map trade in the nineteenth century. Its founder, Joseph Hutchins Colton (1800-1893), was a Massachusetts native. Colton did not start in the map trade; rather, he worked in a general store from 1816 to 1829 and then as a night clerk at the United States Post Office in Hartford, Connecticut. By 1830, he was in New York City, where he set up his publishing business a year later.

The first printed item with his imprint is dated 1833, a reprint of S. Stiles & Company’s edition of David Burr’s map of the state of New York. He also printed John Disturnell’s map of New York City in 1833. Colton’s next cartographic venture was in 1835, when he acquired the rights to John Farmer’s seminal maps of Michigan and Wisconsin. Another early and important Colton work is his Topographical Map of the City and County of New York and the Adjacent Country (1836). In 1839, Colton began issuing the Western Tourist and Emigrant’s Guide, which was originally issued by J. Calvin Smith.

During this first decade, Colton did not have a resident map engraver; he relied upon copyrights purchased from other map makers, most often S. Stiles & Company, and later Stiles, Sherman & Smith. Smith was a charter member of the American Geographical and Statistical Society, as was John Disturnell. This connection would bear fruit for Colton during the early period in his career, helping him to acquire the rights to several important maps. By 1850, the Colton firm was one of the primary publishers of guidebooks and immigrant and railroad maps, known for the high-quality steel plate engravings with decorative borders and hand watercolors.

In 1846, Colton published Colton’s Map of the United States of America, British Possessions . . . his first venture into the wall map business. This work would be issued until 1884 and was the first of several successful wall maps issued by the firm, including collaborative works with D.G. Johnson. From the 1840s to 1855, the firm focused on the production of railroad maps. Later, it published a number of Civil War maps.

In 1855, Colton finally issued his first atlas, Colton’s Atlas of the World, issued in two volumes in 1855 and 1856. In 1857 the work was reduced to a single volume under the title of Colton’s General Atlas, which was published in largely the same format until 1888. It is in this work that George Woolworth (G. W.) Colton’s name appears for the first time.

Born in 1827 and lacking formal training as a mapmaker, G. W. joined his father’s business and would later help it to thrive. His brother Charles B. (C. B.) Colton would also join the firm. Beginning in 1859, the General Atlas gives credit to Johnson & Browning, a credit which disappears after 1860, when Johnson & Browning launched their own atlas venture, Johnson’s New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas, which bears Colton’s name as the publisher in the 1860 and 1861 editions.

J.H. Colton also published a number of smaller atlases and school geographies, including his Atlas of America (1854-56), his Illustrated Cabinet Atlas (1859), Colton’s Condensed Cabinet Atlas of Descriptive Geography (1864) and Colton’s Quarto Atlas of the World (1865). From 1850 to the early 1890s, the firm also published several school atlases and pocket maps. The firm continued until the late 1890s, when it merged with a competitor and then ceased to trade under the name Colton.