Catalog Archive
Auction 191, Lot 211

"[5 Maps in Report] Message from the President of the United States ... the Survey to Ascertain and Designate the Boundary-Line Between the State of Michigan and the Territory of Wisconsin", U.S. Government

Subject: Wisconsin & Michigan

Period: 1841 (published)

Publication: Sen. Ex. Doc. 151, 26th Congress, 2nd Session

Color: Black & White

Size:
5.8 x 8.9 inches
14.7 x 22.6 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

This 16-page Senate report complete with 5 small folding maps concerns a boundary dispute between the territories of Michigan and Wisconsin. The dispute began when the Wisconsin legislature commissioned a map by L. Judson to clarify its boundaries. However, the survey and maps compiled by T.J. Cram, a U.S. Topographical Engineer, revealed that the boundary based on the Judson map was “exceedingly erroneous…despite the high sanction of the legislative assembly.” The Judson map, extracted here in map No. 1, had established the wrong source of the Menominee River. Cram’s report is uncharacteristically critical of the assignment itself and the Judson map. The boundary was not settled until a Supreme Court ruling in 1926. Disbound. The full list of maps include:

A. No. 1. From a Map of the Entire Territories of Wiskonsan and Iowa..., dated 1838 (11.6 x 8.2").
B. No. 2. Corrected Map of the Country Along the Proposed Boundary Between Michigan and Wiskonsan..., dated 1840 (8.5 x 7.8").
C. No. 3. A Map of That Part of the Katakitekon Country Which Lies Between the Head of Brule River and Lac Vieux Desert..., dated 1840 (12.7 x 7.9").
D. No. 4. Map of Green Bay..., dated 1840 (8.1 x 8.4").
E. Sketch of Pemenee Falls... [on sheet with] Sketch of Sturgeon Falls Menomonee River..., (7.3 x 10.9").

References: Claussen & Friis #382-385.

Condition: A

Maps are mostly clean and bright with a few faint spots of foxing. Disbound text is very good with scattered foxing.

Estimate: $160 - $190

Sold for: $100

Closed on 2/8/2023

Archived