Mitchell’s New National Map

This historical, oversized map depicts an intriguing moment in the development of the US, shortly before the Civil War, with much of the West consisting of still-territories: Oregon Territory, Washington Territory, Utah Territory, New Mexico Territory, Kansas Territory, Nebraska Territory, and Minnesota Territory.

[California was admitted in 1850; the next state would be Minnesota in 1858.] The Texas state map dates from 1845, the year Texas became a state, and it shows counties in the east with a vast expanse that was still undivided. Utah and New Mexico also have the interesting long horizontal counties that have been reorganized since. This map also contains two different versions of the world- one on Mercator’s projection and one on a globular projection.

There’s also an inset map of Hawaii, then called the Sandwich Islands, a table of distances, illustrations of ships including Columbus arriving in the Americas, an illustration of the Pilgrims’ Landing, and at bottom a Chart of the Populations in each County per the 1850 census.

This version includes updated topographical information for New Mexico derived from the Pacific Railway Surveys and features a revised border for California. Notably, “Dakotah” is presented for the first time. The map includes black top and bottom margins, and is displayed in full color according to each state or territory.