Catalog Archive
Auction 128, Lot 274

"Sketch of the Routes of Hunt & Stuart", Irving, Washington

Subject: Western United States

Period: 1836 (published)

Publication: Astoria, or Anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains

Color: Black & White

Size:
18 x 9.5 inches
45.7 x 24.1 cm
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Describing an expedition launched just a few years after Lewis & Clark's epic journey, this map covers the same region -- from the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri, up the Missouri, across the Rocky Mountains and through the Pacific Northwest, extending to well below Lake Bonneville Salt Water. The southern portion of the map is mostly blank except for a long straight Colorado of the West with many tributaries originating in the Rockies. The Great Basin region has three lakes and a few land-locked rivers. The routes of the two explorers are delineated with dotted lines with Stuart's party reaching all the way to Astoria near the mouth of the Columbia River. Wheat says "for what it purports to be it is an excellent map."

The map is the result of a commercial exploration directed by John Jacob Astor. The expedition was sent in 1811 to seek an overland route to the Pacific. Washington Irving was commissioned by Astor to write the account of his company's effort to create a settlement in Oregon. The work was not published until 1836. Reportedly engraved by Carey, Lea & Blanchard, but no attribution is given on the map.

References: Wheat [TMW] #419.

Condition: B

Clean, bright example with very fine engraving. Fine less the 3" closed tear beginning at binding trim and running up though blank areas of the map.

Estimate: $250 - $350

Sold for: $190

Closed on 5/20/2009

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