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Engraved map on twelve sheets joined as six and mounted on linen (each ca. 35 x 22 1/2 in.; 889 x 569 mm, and totaling ca. 70 x 67 1/2 in.), engraved by H. Anderson, contemporary outline handcoloring and light varnishing, large engraved allegorical vignette by Anderson above title depicting Robinson bowing before two female figures holding shields bearing the federal eagles of Mexico and the United States, respectively, while a winged female hovers in the background; lengthy engraved dedication below the title ("To Maj. Gen. Thomas Hinds, Brigr. Gen. John Wood, Col. Coles Mead, Edward Turner Esqr. Jonathon Thompson Esqr. Vela Metcalfe Esqr. & James Metcalfe M.D. This Map is Respectfully inscribed as a testimony of their Patronage, in Promoting the Publication by the Author"); eight statistical and other informational tables engraved lower left, including latitude and longitude, populations of various provinces, size and locations of Indian peoples, and mountain heights. The six sheets uniformly handsomely framed and glazed with UVIII Plexiglass. A very little bit of minor chipping at margins and sheet edges, occasional browning or minor soiling, some scattered craqulure from varnish. PROVENANCE: The Library of Congress (small stamp below the imprint, "Map Division Library of Congress"; likely a copyright deposit copy) - Thomas W. Streeter (penciled note in margin above vignette, "By exchange with the Library of Congress for the surveys by George Washington Dec. 1939"; see also Streeter's article "The Rollins Collection of Western Americana," in Princeton University Library Chronicle, Vol. IX (June 1948): 203, where he describes his attempts to secure Rollins's copy of the Robinson map before "a search of about a dozen years was rewarded by my finding a procurable duplicate of the map in a great institutional library") - Yale University FIRST ISSUE OF A SEMINAL MAP OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: THE FIRST MAP TO DELINEATE THE BORDER OF TEXAS AND LOUISIANA AS ESTABLISHED BY THE CRUCIAL ADAMS-ONÍS TREATY OF 1819. ONE OF ONLY ABOUT TEN COPIES TO SURVIVE, THIS IS EVIDENTLY ONE OF THREE COPIES DEPOSITED BY ROBINSON IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS IN ORDER TO SECURE COPYRIGHT. John Hamilton Robinson was the naturalist and medical officer (and possibly a spy) on Zebulon Pike's expedition to the southwest, later venturing several times to Mexico and serving in her army. On the map itself Robinson explains his cartographic sources: "The Information on which the Author feels himself justified in the publication of this Map, is from his own knowledge of the Country in his several voyages thither and also the several Manuscript Maps which are now in his possession, drawn by order of the Captain General of the Internal Provinces and Viceroy of Mexico." In a legend along the Pacific Coast he gives a specific credit: "This portion of the coast was laid down from the map made by Don Juan Pedro Walker by order of the Captain General of the Internal Provinces in 1810." Robinson also likely relied on William Clark's map of the Lewis and Clark expedition as well. In the parlance of the day, Robinson was a "filibuster"-a combination of adventurer and mercenary-fully committed to the sometimes competing goals of Mexican independence from Spain and the expansion westward of the United States. He conceived of his map in helping both of those endeavors by highlighting the vast territory claimed-or at least coveted- by both the United States and Spain. Robinson published a prospectus for the map claiming that it would "contain the latest and best information from the discoveries and possessions of the American, Spanish, Russian, British and French travellers and navigators, and representing the claims of their respective governments in the North western coast of America." Robinson's map shows the routes of Pike, Lewis and Clark, Dominique, and Font; cities and towns, villages and missions, Indian nations; silver mines; and forts among other features. He has als.
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