Item details: The American Geography ; or, A View of the Present Situation of the United States of America
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$US 1250.00
MORSE, Jedidiah
The American Geography ; or, A View of the Present Situation of the United States of America
Imprint: London, John Stockdale, 1792
Octavo (220 x 145 mm.), full modern calf, gilt ruled ribbed spine with calf gilt title label. With two large folding maps and a folding table, in good condition. xvi, 536 pp.
This is the second edition published in London of a work first published in Elizabethtown in 1789. Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826) was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, and became a Congregational Minister and geographer in New Haven. His book ‘The American Geography’ was first published in 1784 with text only and its success earned him the title of the ‘father of American geography’. The two engraved maps depict the northern and southern parts of the fledgling United States of America. That of the northern parts is entitled ‘A Map of the Northern and Middle States; comprehending the Western Territory and the British Dominions in North America from the best Authorities’. The map of the southern parts is entitled ‘A Map of the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia; Comprehending the Spanish Provinces of East and West Florida ...’ and is by Joseph Purcell of particular interest including as it does a reference to the ‘New State of Franklin’. This ‘State’ existed effectively as a Republic for four years or more from 1784 and was intended as part payment to the Federal Government of debts accrued by North Carolina during the American War of Independence. The map also interestingly outlines the locations of the Indian nations at the time. Provenance: acquired in Texas 1999. Howes (1962) M840; Ristow (1985) p. 71; Sabin (1868) 50926; Schwartz & Ehrenberg (1980) p. 209.
Stock number:7142.