[California Gold Rush Guidebook] A New Map of Texas Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining [with text:] Description of Oregon and California, Embracing an Account of the Gold Regions; to which is added, an Appendix, Containing Descriptions of Various Kinds of Gold, and Methods of Testing its Genuineness.

Samuel Augustus Mitchell

Published by Samuel Augustus Mitchell, 1849

About this Item

Mapping the Road to Gold: Mitchell s 1849 Guide to California and the WestSamuel Augustus Mitchell s 1849 Guide and New Map of Texas, Oregon and California form an unusually vivid record of the American West at the openi. 12mo. Hand-colored engraved folding map, housed in publisher's gilt-stamped dark leather pocket binding with illustrations steamship, ferry, and train within ornamental border. Spine very expertly restored. Complete with 76-page text (with original marbled lower wrapper, as issued). 11 wood-engraved text illustrations. Map with minor fold wear, short splits along folds, and tiny paper loss at upper margin edge. Text block with light edge wear and minor handling marks. Except for some light browning (mostly confined to blank margins), a near fine example. Contemporary ink inscription of T. M. Shelley and another contemporary ink notation "3-2 without: 3-6 with." Housed in custom half morocco clamshell case. Mapping the Road to Gold: Mitchell s 1849 Guide to California and the WestSamuel Augustus Mitchell s 1849 Guide and New Map of Texas, Oregon and California form an unusually vivid record of the American West at the opening of the Gold Rush, combining a practical emigrant manual with a map newly adapted for the great westward movement to California.The map captures the West at a moment of extraordinary territorial change. Texas had been annexed in 1845; the Mexican-American War had ended only the previous year; the Oregon boundary had recently been settled with Britain; and vast portions of the newly acquired Southwest remained imperfectly known. Texas is still shown extending its claims far up the Rio Grande into present-day New Mexico, claims that would be relinquished under the Compromise of 1850. Large areas of the interior remain marked Unexplored, a striking reminder of how incomplete American geographical knowledge remained even as thousands of emigrants were preparing to cross the continent.Mitchell s plate had first appeared in 1846, but for this Gold Rush issue it was substantially reworked. The earlier Explanation and table of distances were removed and replaced by insets showing the sea routes to California and the Gold Regions themselves. Considerably more geographical detail was added to the California interior, while the principal overland trails were highlighted in vivid color and the Gold Regions given their own distinctive coloring. The northern boundary was also relabeled Boundary of 1846, reflecting the settlement of the Oregon question. The result transformed what had been a general map of the trans-Mississippi West into something like a vade mecum for the Forty-Niner.The accompanying guide is equally practical. Considerable attention is devoted to the physical character of the country, flora and fauna, Native peoples, regional history, and the practical problems confronting emigrants. Mitchell repeatedly urges travelers to cross the plains in organized, armed wagon companies, recommending groups of twenty to fifty wagons and describing the familiar practice of drawing the wagons into a circle or square at night to form a defensive breastwork. The author clearly favors the overland route, even making the striking prediction that steamships would never supplant sailing vessels as a practical means of reaching California from the East Coast.The map also has an important association with the Mormon migration. Brigham Young is known to have ordered six copies, and an annotated example now at Brigham Young University records the Mormon presence in Utah, apparently predating the printed identification of the Mormon settlement on Fremont s 1848 map.Together, Mitchell s map and guide are important documents of the transformation of the Far West: as a tool for migrants heading West, particularly to California during the Gold Rush, the map embodies the complex dynamics of t.

Seller Inventory # 127394

Bibliographic Details

• Title: [California Gold Rush Guidebook] A New Map of Texas Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining [with text:] Description of Oregon and California, Embracing an Account of the Gold Regions; to which is added, an Appendix, Containing Descriptions of Various Kinds of Gold, and Methods of Testing its Genuineness.
• Publisher: Samuel Augustus Mitchell
• Publication Date: 1849
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: vg+
• Book Type: Book
• Seller catalogs:
  • Antique Maps