"Phelps's National Map of the United States, A Travellers Guide...", Phelps, Ensigns & Thayer

A nice example of the third edition of this folding pocket map. The map extends to the Great Plains and includes part of Texas with two large unnamed regions extending northward, presumably the Indian territories and Iowa Territory. The map is filled with details including roads, towns and villages, railroads, rivers, and much more. Delineates the Trader’s Route to Santa Fe in Missouri and through the territory to the west. Names numerous Indian tribes, Burial Grounds, and trading depots. It is embellished with a surrounding border featuring finely engraved portraits of 16 famous Americans, the seals of 30 states including Texas (but not California), the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the seal of the United States. This early edition does not have the large inset "Map of Oregon, California & Texas" that appears soon after this issue at lower right. Here the original insets include the vicinity around Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis. The southern tip of Florida and the north part of Maine are shown in insets as well.

Included is Phelps’s Travellers’ Guide through the United States; containing Upwards of Seven Hundred Rail-road, Canal, and Stage and Steam-Boat Routes, accompanied with a New Map of the United States, from which the map has been detached. The 70 page booklet contains all manner of information valuable to the traveler including distance tables for stage, canal, steamboat, and railroads listed by state and an extensive index of place names . Hardbound in reddish-brown leather (3.5 x 5.5") with an elaborate cover design embossed in gilt showing an early train and the steamship St. Louis. All edges gilt (A.E.G.).

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Condition: B

Issued folding, now pressed flat and reinforced with tissue, with several fold separations, one of which have been closed using paper tape. There are also some light stains scattered throughout the map, patches of minor toning, and part of the neatline has been trimmed at right.