[MAP] Johnson's Central America. (c. 1861)

[MAP] Johnson's Central America. New York: Johnson & Browning, c. 1861. [11171]

Large hand-colored map, 45.7 x 36 cm (18 x 14 inches), clean, suitable for framing. Removed from a bound volume, Johnson's New Illustrated Family Atlas, plate 57. Very good. Map.

This undated map shows the roads, rivers, cities, provinces and districts. Includes inset illustrations of the Isthmus of Panama; Harbor of San Juan de Nicaragua; The Nicaragua Route; Manzarilla Island, Aspinwall City, Navy Bay; and the City of Panama. The Johnson and Browning imprint dates this map between 1860 and 1862. 

Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), b. Wallingford, Vermont; school teacher, for some years a book and map seller for J. H. Colton and Co. After some efforts at publishing his own maps, Johnson found success with his Family Atlas, publishing them in Richmond, Virginia and in New York City beginning in 1860. He and his partner Ross C. Browning (1822-1899) evidently purchased rights to Colton's maps, as they appear in the first Johnson's Family Atlas. Johnson updated his maps as cartography became more accurate, and Atlases during the 1860's were bound with maps bearing various dates until that particular map was updated. Johnson and Browning maps were published 1860-1862; Johnson and Ward were years 1862-1866; maps published by A. J. Johnson, A. J. Johnson and Son, A. J. Johnson & Co., date from 1866-1887.

Johnson's hand-colored maps are known for their accuracy to detail and are an important record of internal improvements and westward expansion. All are suitable for framing and valued by collectors.