Buchon's edition of John Melish's map of the United States.
Fine example of Jean Alexandre Buchon's map of the United States, intended to be included in his Atlas geographique, statistique, historique et chronologique des deux Ameriques (Paris, 1825).
The map is drawn from Matthew Carey's map of the United States, first issued circa 1819, which has been extended a bit westward to show the Upper Columbia River and Lake Timpanogos (one of the two mythical precursors to the Great Salt Lake).,
The map includes Arkansas Territory extending far west of its modern limits, with a massive Oregon Territory covering virtually all of the United States west of the Mississippi River, other than Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas territory.
The Santa Fe Route is shown, as is a significant amount of information derived from Lewis & Clark and the Long Expedition to the source of the Arkansas and Platte Rivers. A number of Western Indian names are shown.
An excellent early map of the West, drawn directly from one of America's most important early map makers.
Jean Alexandre Buchon (1791-1849) was a French scholar and historian. Born as the French Revolution raged, Buchon was dedicated to recovering France’s history in order to help the country heal and grow. He gathered French stories and published them as part of Collection des chroniques nationales franciases ecrites en langue vulgaire, du XIe au XVIe siècle (4 vols, 1824-1829). He also compiled and published an exploration collection and several histories, particularly about medieval France.
For geography, his most important contribution was publication of the French edition of Carey & Lea’s American Atlas in 1825. Each page of the atlas includes highly detailed text about the state or territory depicted, as well as a map of the area. The French edition is generally considered in high regard as compared to other editions, as it has quality paper and superior engraving.