Roessler, Anton R.

A. R. Roessler's Latest Map of the State of Texas Exhibiting Mineral-and Agricultural Districts, Post Offices & Mailroutes, Railroads Projected and Finished, Timber, Prairie, Swamp Lands ... Compiled and Drawn by M.V. Mittendorfer. New York: Ferdinand Mayer for Edward W. Welcke & Bro., 1874



Lithographed map (39 ¾ x 46 in.; 101 x 1168 mm), with original full-color and rose outline, with inset "Map showing Agricultural Districts" in lower left corner, inset table "Enumeration of the Principal Minerals, Rocks, Soils and Timber Varieties..." in lower center, and two inset views of the General Land Office and the State Capitol both at Austin; a few small fold tears unobtrusively repaired, without the cloth pocket cover.

J.A. Day, The Maps of Texas (1964), p. 90; P.L.Phillips, A List of Maps of America (1901), p. 847; Taliaferro, Cartographic Sources in the Rosenberg Library (1988), 349

First edition, the large format version.

Anton R. Roessler (1826-1893), cartographer and geologist, served in these roles for the Shumard Survey, the first thorough geological and agricultural survey of Texas. His maps are the only printed maps preserving the results of that survey which was scrapped during the Civil War. Indeed Roessler was accused of stealing the Shumard survey data for private use in his own real estate and mining ventures, and their use in his maps make them the most reliable contemporary record of agricultural and mineral wealth in the state.