1861 Map of the United States of North America...
Map of the United States of North America. Upper & Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, & British Columbia. Mexico, Cuna, Jamaica, St. Domingo and the Bahama Islands
By: Theodore Ettling
Date: 1861 (dated) London
Dimensions: 26 x 37 inches (66 x 94 cm)
A scarce and folding map of the United States, published as a supplement of the Illustrated London News at the onset of the American Civil War. The map presents the United States, colored by free and slave states though not in its final form. Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, all slave states, would never leave the Union.
The American Civil War in Great Britain
The American Civil War was of great interest to the people of Great Britain and Ireland. They legally recognized status of the Confederate States of America but never recognized it as a nation remained neutral throughout the ongoing conflict. As public sentiment would fall on the side of the Union, fighting to free those enslaved, Britain would cease to import cotton from the Confederate States. In one instance, Manchester cotton workers refused out of principle to process any cotton from America. This in turn hampered the CSA's ability to fund the war, which among other things, shifted the long-term advantage to the Union.
Examining the Western Territories
Aside from the obvious call to attention for the Civil War, the map offers an interesting look at the new and developing American West. Arizona and New Mexico are divided by a horizontal line known as the "Baylor Line," named after the Confederate Lt. John R. Baylor whom invaded Arizona one month after this map's publication in July of 1861. The idea was to solidify an overland path to the Pacific for the Confederate States. This confederate territory was never recognized by the United States but it can be found in maps published between 1861 and 1862.
While the Colorado Territory was established in 1861, it does not appear on this map. At least it doesn't appear in the right place. The territory was established as a result of the Pike's Peak Gold Rush that brought prospectors from every direction to the Rocky Mountain front range of what was the Nebraska Territory, proposed Jefferson Territory, and ultimately the Colorado Territory. In this map, Ettling outlines a large section of southern Texas from the Rio Colorado of the Mexican border and coastline, giving it the name "Colorado."
The rest of the west is comprised of the state of California and the large territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Nebraska, Dakota, and Kansas. Over the next decade, the boundaries of these territories would alter, rearrange, shrink, and divide themselves into the states we recognize today.
Theodor Ettling was a Dutch draftsman, engraver, and lithographer who worked first in Amsterdam, later moving to London where he produced maps for some of the British newspapers of the mid-19th century. Ettling seems to have made quite a study of North America, issuing a number of fine cartographic works such as this example. He employed a process called "paniconographie." The process was invented by F. Gillet who produced this map using a relief plate made on zinc, upon which an image had been transferred mechanically using ink which would resist the acid used to etch the rest of the plate.
Condition: This map is in A condition with no tears or holes and wide margins on all sides.
Inventory #12472
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