THE FIRST GAZETTEER OF THE UNITED STATES, 1795, CONTAINING ALL 19 FOLDING MAPS AS ISSUED

SCOTT, Joseph T. The United States Gazetteer: Containing an Authentic Description of the Several States, Their Situation, Extent, Boundaries, Soil, Produce, Climate, Population, Trade and Manufactures. Philadelphia: F. and R. Bailey, 1795. Thick 12mo (4-1/4 by 7 inches) contemporary full brown sheep rebacked, red morocco spine label.

First edition of the scarce first gazetteer of the United States, with engraved title page and 19 folding maps—some with outlining in color—delineating the United States and the various individual states, including some of the most important early maps of the new “western” territories, as well as extremely accurate depictions of the eastern states.

Joseph Scott, along with fellow Philadelphian Mathew Carey, was one of the first American cartographic publishers, and he was responsible for the first map of Tennessee, which he engraved in 1793 for inclusion in Carey's American Atlas (1795)—the first atlas published in America. He also provided several maps for Carey's General Atlas of the Present War (1794), re-engraved from the 1770 London edition of the Atlas to Guthrie's System of Geography. Scott's Gazetteer appeared in 1795, with 19 maps that "I have drawn and engraved myself, and I trust they will be found, on examination, as accurate as circumstances would admit, and probably more so than any collection of maps that has hitherto been published in the United States." Scott's maps bear some similarity to those produced in London by John Russell for the 1795 edition of Winterbotham's American Atlas. He published his maps separately the following year as An Atlas of the United States (also printed by Frank and Robert Bailey), and the large map of the United States appeared again in 1805 as the frontispiece for his Geographical Dictionary. Scott's Gazetteer developed a fine reputation for its reliance on such primary sources as the first Federal Census (1790) and a collection of original government documents obtained from Tench Coxe, Commissioner of the Revenue under Alexander Hamilton. Coxe had used these documents, which contained up-to-date statistics on imports and exports, agriculture, ship-building and manufacturing, in preparing his official View of the United States of America (1794).

Jefferson owned a copy of the Gazeteer. In his preface, Scott mentions Jefferson and other writers as sources: "And while I am paying my tribute of gratitude, it would be injustice to forbear mentioning, that my account of the caves and minerals in Virginia, I have taken from Mr. Jefferson's notes on that state, and a few particulars relating to the rivers; I have also taken the liberty of making use of Mr. Bartram's and the Marquis de Chastellux's travels; and in my account of Pennsylvania, I have made use of Marshall's Arbustrum Americanum, in the description of a few trees and shrubs." Scott goes on to state "when we reflect that no gazetteer has ever been published of the United States, I may with some degree of justice say, I have 'trodden an unbeaten path." Evans 29476. Howes S237. Sabin 78331. Rosenbach 4:261. McCorkle 795.13. Wheat & Brun 125ff. Sowerby 4022. See Ristow, 151, 154.

Small marginal repair to verso of large folding map of the United States; scattered light foxing and dampstaining to text and plates, interior generally quite clean. An excellent copy in contemporary boards.