A cornerstone 1836 map of the Western United States, showing mainly Kansas and Nebraska ("Western Territory").
Washington: Printed by Blair & Rives for the War Department, 1836. First printing. A very large, important early copper engraved map of the western United States made during the period of westward expansion propelled by Manifest Destiny, with original outline hand coloring. The map is untitled, but the words "Western Territory" in all caps extends through the central section. The map covers all the country from western Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, and from Santa Fe ("Touse" being Taos) north to the Black Hills (3 degrees too far south). By Lieut. (Enoch) Steen, United States Dragoons. From Lt. J. P. Kingsbury's 'Journal of the Expedition of Dragoons, Under the Command of Colonel Henry P. Dodge, to the Rocky Mountains, During the Summer of 1835'.
Colonel Henry P. Dodge commanded the Dragoon Expedition during the summer of 1835 to patrol the Indian frontier from the upper waters of the Red River to the Rocky Mountains. He was appointed to this post by President Andrew Jackson in recognition of his achievement in keeping the warring Native American tribes in check. The 1830s was a period in which Americans began to travel westward in huge numbers, propelled by the principle of Manifest Destiny.
"The expedition left Fort Leavenworth on May 29, 1835, proceeding up the South Platte River to the Rocky Mountains, of present day Omaha) , thence to Fountain Creek and Bent's Fort; they returned down the Arkansas River to the Santa Fe Trail and back to Fort Leavenworth, arriving there on September 16. The detachment visited the Omaha, Pawnee, Arikara, and other tribes along the upper Platte and Arkansas Rivers during a march of sixteen hundred miles" (Plains & Rockies IV:63).
Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West 418 & 421 & pp. 149-51; Howes K161;
35 x 19 1/2". Very good copy of "an extremely important western map", Dick Fitch 1992. Very good condition. Item #17506
Price: $2,750.00