A CLASSIC OF WESTERN AMERICAN CARTOGRAPHY: RARE PREUSS MAP OF THE NORTHWEST, 1845

PREUSS, Charles. Map of an Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. Baltimore: E. Weber, [1845]. ISSUED FOR: FREMONT, John Charles. Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-44. Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1845. Large original color-outlined (blue rivers and lakes) lithographic map, measuring 52 by 32 inches unfolded. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

This rare landmark of American overland cartography, Preuss’ famous 1845 map of the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and Northern California, played a critical part in westward exploration and expansion.

“More than any other persons, John Charles Fremont and Charles Preuss dominate the cartography of the American West during the three years before the Gold Rush brought a human tide surging into that land which had so long lain beyond the ken of most Americans” (Wheat 523). Preuss was perhaps the greatest topographer in the history of American map-making, and his accurate map of the Northwest for Fremont’s Report was of primary importance to those hoping to undertake the difficult journey west. “It represented trustworthy direct observation, a new, welcome, and long overdue development in the myth-encrusted cartography of the West” (Wheat II, 200). Fremont describes Preuss’ large folding map as “connecting with Captain Wilkes’ survey of the mouth of the Columbia, and with the authentic surveys of the State of Missouri, it fills up the vast geographical chasm between these two remote points, and presents a connected and accurate view of our continent from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.” It established the year 1845 as “one of the towering years in the story of Western cartography” (Wheat II, 194). The lithographer, Edward Weber of Baltimore (who learned lithography from its inventor Aloys Senefelder) “became one of the principal publishers of government reports and maps” (Schwartz & Ehrenberg, 271). Wheat, Transmississippi 497. Wheat, California 21. See Sabin 25845; Howes F370; Wagner-Camp 115.1; Graff 1436; Streeter 3131; Peters, 397.

Entirely linen-backed, slightly soiled, a few light pencil notations. An extremely good copy.