Rare book: Carey's General Atlas, Improved and Enlarged. Philadelphia: M. Carey, 1816. Hardcover bound in contemporary leather-backed boards, 11.25 x 16.5, containing the complete 58 engraved maps, all colored in outline (49 double-page, one folding chart). This important atlas features 26 regional maps of North America and includes an early map of the Michigan Territory, as well as maps of countries around the world. The preface, dated March 17, 1814, reads, in part: "It is proper to state that the maps of North America - of the British settlements - of the United States - of the District of Maine - of Massachusetts - of Pennsylvania - of Maryland - of Virginia - of North Carolina - of Georgia - of Kentucky - of Tennessee, of the Mississippi Territory; of the State of Ohio; of the North Western, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana Territory, of the state of Louisiana, of the Missouri Territory… are all new. The American ones drafted by Mr. Samuel Lewis, the others taken from recent European publications. The residue have been retouched, and where necessary, corrected." Inscriptions on the first free end page trace the provenance: John A. Fort (owner’s name on front free endpaper); Mary Fort to John Peter Nelson (gift inscription dated 1828); Cornelia M. Nelson (gift inscription to her daughter, dated 1888). Book condition: VG-/None, with mottled overall foxing throughout, dampstaining to boards, wear to spine, and a partial crack to front joint.
Carey's 1814 atlas had been one of the earliest commercially available atlases to include maps of the expansion of the United States following the Louisiana Purchase, and included information derived from the transcontinental expedition of Lewis and Clark. This 1816 edition is one of the rarest issues of Mathew Carey's famous atlas, and as such is highly sought after.
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