USA – Rocky Mountains – Colorado – Utah – Irving

Irving, Washington: A Map of the Sources of the Colorado & Big Salt Lake, Platte, Yellow-Stone, Muscle-Shell, Missouri; & Salmon & Snake Rivers, branches of the Columbia River.

Carey, Lea & Blanchard Philadelphia 1837

steel engraved map with recent hand colouring; image 42 x 40 cm. folds as issued; printer’s crease; some extensive but expert restoration has been applied and the map has been backed onto 190 gsm Heritage All Rag made basically from  pure cotton rags,  devised for conservation of works of art. The work is reversible as only pure starch paste was used.; o/w vg cond.

A very accurate and important map of this area by Captain Benjamin de Bonneville which is centred around the Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole  and the Yellowstone and Snake Rivers. Chronologically, Bonneville’s map is placed between the Lewis & Clark expedition and John Fremont but rather than copying old map sources, this map is based on the hydrographical layout of the area.

Bonneville (1796-1878) was a French officer in the US Army, a fur-trapper and an explorer of the American West, especially of the Oregon County and the Oregon Trail. – After the return from one of his expedition, he met Washington Irving who bought Bonneville’s notes, plans and maps for $1000, and used them for his book ‘The Adventures of Captain Bonneville’.

Despite its condition, this is a rare and very important map in the discovery of the American West!

[ref: 3640] £500