Carey, Matthew | The first American pocket atlas printed in the United States, 1796

Carey, Matthew

Carey's American Pocket Atlas... Philadelphia: for Matthew Carey by Lang and Ustick, 1796

12mo (166 x 100 mm). 19 engraved folding maps by William Barker, Joseph H. Seymour, and Amos Doolittle, the frontispiece map and one other with hand color in outline, many of the others with a light blue wash, ownership signature dated 1797 to title; very lightly toned, a few pale spots, light offsetting in the maps, faint library stamp to title, the larger folding map of the United states with a few small paper repairs and one short split at the ends of the folds, manuscript route-lines in ink to certain maps. Modern quarter calf over marbled paper boards, gilt-ruled spine with a gilt red morocco label.

The rare first edition of the first American pocket atlas to be printed in America, complete with all nineteen maps.

Published in the post-Revolutionary period by the influential mapmaker and publisher, Matthew Carey, this small-scale atlas includes maps and geographical descriptions of the entirety of what was then the United States. This comprises the original 13 states, the 3 recently admitted states of Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, as well as Maine and the North West territories. The text accompanying each map also gives an account of the laws, climate, navigation, commerce, and native tribes in the region. He published this just a year after his American Atlas, the first atlas of America printed in the United States. Carey went on to revise and reissue his pocket atlas in 1801, 1805, 1813, and 1814.

In this copy, the New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut maps all feature portions of three early, continuous manuscript lines in ink, evidently plotting routes for a voyage. One route leads from New Haven to Newbury, MA, the second from New Haven to Portsmouth, N.H., and the third from the Long Island Sound to Newbury, R.I., by sea, and then on to Providence by land. As such, it appears that this copy may have had some practical use to an early American traveler. This is a particularly charming feature because, by virtue of their small size, this atlas was intended to be carried along on voyages.

Rare—only five complete copies of this atlas have appeared at auction since 1915, according to Rare Book Hub.

REFERENCES

ESTC W37674; Howes C137; Sabin 10856

PROVENANCE

James Kent (1763-1847; famous jurist; ownership signature on the title) — Jay T. Snider (his sale, Bloomsbury, 19 November 2008)