Catalog Archive
Auction 145, Lot 107

"N. America and the West Indies", Huntington, F. J.

Subject: North America, Texas

Period: 1838 (dated)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
9 x 11 inches
22.9 x 27.9 cm
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The United States and Great Britain established in 1818 joint claim over the Oregon Territory - the region north of Spanish controlled Upper California up to the southern boundary of Russia's Alaska Territory at North latitude 54°40'. By the late 1830's this arrangement was beginning to fall apart. In the 1840's the expansionist Democrats, including their 1844 presidential candidate, James Polk, claimed the entire region for the United States. Their expansionist desires were expressed by Polk's famous campaign slogan, "Fifty-four Forty or Fight!" The slogan also became a rally cry for Americans desiring to settle the territory. Following Polk's election, the dispute was resolved by the 1846 Treaty of Oregon, which struck a compromise that fixed the U.S./Canadian boundary at 49º North.

This rarely seen issue features an Independent Republic of Texas with the long stove-pipe border extending into the Rocky Mountains to about the 40th Parallel. It also shows a huge Oregon Territory with the United States claim shown well into present day British Columbia. Mexico is in control of California and the Southwest. Keyboard style border surrounds the map.

References:

Condition: B+

Original color with a few faint spots and a printer's crease at bottom right.

Estimate: $160 - $200

Sold for: $300

Closed on 6/12/2013

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