Dec 08, 2022 - Sale 2624

Sale 2624 - Lot 16

Price Realized: $ 50,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
(AMERICAN WESTWARD EXPANSION.) John Melish. Map of the United States with the Contiguous British & Spanish Possessions. Large engraved map of the United States segmented and mounted to original linen back with silk edging. 36 1/4x59 inches overall, cleanly folding into original marbled paper self-wrappers; original hand-color in outline; minor spotting and bits of lost selvage but overall fine and attractive. Philadelphia, 1818

Additional Details

An excellent example of Ristow's fifth state of the improved 1818 edition of this significant piece of American cartography, the first accurate depiction of the continental United States presented as a unified landmass between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Melish's important document produced an early visual flicker to the idea of Manifest Destiny and established the tone of the hundred years to follow in which the fledgling nation turned its focus from east to west and settled the continent.

"At a glance the whole extent of the United States territory from sea to sea... The view is complete and leaves nothing to be wished for." - John Melish regarding his own map (Mapping the West).

Ristow, A la Carte, pages 174-176; Cohen, Mapping the West, pages 102-104.