The Pacific Ocean including Oceanica by Thomas Cowperthwait

Code: 54148

Date: 1854

Published 1854 in Pennsylvania, dated 1850 .  Lithograph with original full wash hand colouring. Overall sheet size: 42.3cms x 34.6 cms; image size: 382mm x 318mm.  The map focuses on the Sandwich Islands, Mendan’s Archipelago, Central Archipelago, Ladrone Islands, Friendly Islands , each named and it gives some distances from United States to the Philippines .  Inset top right of The Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands  with  ‘Remarks’ below the islands detailing interesting sociological facts and statistics .  Bottom left is an inset of Australia and New Zealand and extreme bottom left is an inset of Antarctic Continent with a track of the US Exploring Expedition of 1840 declaring below that the continent was discovered on 19th January 1840 by the US Exploring Expedition under the command of Lieut. Charles Wilkes and that it was,’examined for an extent of 1800 miles from east to west’, and proceeds to detail the explorations of d’Urville (French) and Sabrina Land and the Balleny Islands discovered by the British navigators.  Explanation key in right blank shows the symbols for Important Towns, Smaller towns and states that,’the words underscored are the names of the islands in which the Missionairies have labored with most success’.  Colour key in China top left shows the key to the colouring delineating the various colonial possessions and that of  ‘native’ possession.  Browning to margin edges and bottom left tip missing, two marginal nicks; two brown spots below Owhyhee or Hawaii island  else very good condition.

Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co. were a publishing company based in Philadelphia. They were part of the burgeoning atlas and map publishing in the early to mid-nineteenth century. They published many famous works, including Tanner’s New Universal Atlas.  Their maps are notable for the decorative borders and fine, vivid original hand colouring.