[MAP] Johnson's Map of the World on Mercator's Projection

[MAP] Johnson's Map of the World on Mercator's Projection. New York: Johnson & Browning, c. 1860. [10369]

Large double-plate hand-colored map, 46 x 67.5 cm (18 x 26 3/4 inches), clean, suitable for framing. There are some edge-tears in the margins, which will be covered with a mat when you have it framed. We repaired one small tear at the bottom of the fold with archival materials. Will ship folded at center, as found. Removed from a bound volume, Johnson's New Illustrated Family Atlas. Good. Engraving.

This stunning map shows the world as understood just before the American Civil War, with shipping lanes, explorer's routes, and principal cities marked out. The polar regions remain largely unexplored, and while coastal regions are full of information, the interiors of such places as Africa and Russia remain uncharted.

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.