1824 The Navigator, Containing Directions for Navigating the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers
DESCRIPTION
By: Cramer & Spear
Date: 1824 (Dated) Pittsburgh
Dimensions: 7.25 x 4.5 inches
The Navigator, is a seminal American river guide containing numerous maps and instructions for navigating the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; two of the most vital transportation arteries in early years of 19th-century American Westward Expansion. This issue, published by Cramer & Spear out of Pittsburgh in 1824 is the twelfth edition, first issued in 1801.
Following the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers became essential conduits for settlers pushing beyond the original thirteen colonies into newly organized frontier lands. With limited roads and no railroads yet connecting the East to the West, the rivers offered the most efficient routes for migration, trade, and military logistics.
Content and Practical Use of the Navigator
Designed for boatmen, settlers, traders, and migrants, the book includes navigational directions, descriptions of river towns, ports, and hazards, as well as dozens of small engraved maps illustrating key stretches of the rivers, islands, shoals, and rapids. It also features an appendix covering the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and accounts of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers as discovered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and historical background on any early French forts, churches, and settlements, many of which were much depleted after they were informed by the United States government that their pre-revolutionary land claims were no longer valid.
Mapping Frontier Waterways and Settlements
This particular example contains the signature of one of it's early owners, and was likely taken along on a journey into the mostly unknown Northwest Territory we recognize today as the Mid-west. Its contains a collection of nearly twenty compact yet detailed woodcut maps, which chart the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers with navigational precision. These maps highlight numerous important towns, islands, and hazards encountered along the journey westward, such as Cincinnati, Louisville, and Pittsburgh, key ports for trade, resupply, and migration. The inclusion of the “Falls of the Ohio,” a notoriously difficult stretch of river near Louisville, reflects the guide’s practical value for boatmen seeking to avoid shipwreck or delays. Small towns like Columbia, Lawrenceburg, and Massac appear as well, capturing a snapshot of the growing settlements dotting the rivers during the early 19th century.
Enduring Historical Significance
Equally fascinating is the depiction of the lower Mississippi River, including the Chickasaw Bluffs and a fork where the Wolf River joins the Mississippi—known today as the site of Memphis, Tennessee. The map references local features such as Fort Pickering, the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, and even includes cautionary notes on dangerous islands and eddies near these points. In fact, much the text accompanying the map offer precise directions, depth soundings, and advice on potential hazards, best places for shade, fishing, etc.
The Navigator served as both a travel manual and a symbol of the nation's westward momentum, providing early Americans with the knowledge they needed to venture confidently into unfamiliar territories. Today, it serves as a working record of early westward expansion offering insight into the precarious journey made by some of the first Anglo-American settlers west of the Appalachians and the towns, ports, and trading posts along the way, some of which have grown into major cities or vanished entirely.
Condition: Book is in fine condition, worn cover and spine with some foxing throughout. All pages still attached with one torn but repaired with archival tape. As a working guide book just over 200 years old, its present condition is quite impressive.
Inventory #12998
CONDITION
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