Carey, Henry Charles, and Isaac Lea.

Folio (17 5/8 x 11 1/2 ins.; 445 x  290 mm).  46 double-page handcolored engraved maps of America, all but one with borders of letterpress descriptive text, 1 uncolored double-page engraved view showing the comparative heights of mountains throughout the world, 1 handcolored double-page engraved table showing the comparative lengths of the principal rivers worldwide, 5 letterpress tables (4 double-page 3 of these handcolored); stain to one map, few light spots mostly to map versos. Expertly bound to style in half dark blue straight grained morocco over contemporary marbled paper covered boards.

Howes C133 ("aa"); Phillips 1373a; Sabin 15055; Wheat, Transmississippi West 348 and 352.

First edition of one of the most important early atlases printed in the United States: a handsome atlas of the Americas, with individual handcolored maps of each state in the Union, including a seminal map of the West by Stephen H. Long.

At the time of publication this was the best and most detailed atlas to be produced in the United States. Among the most noted maps in the atlas is Major Stephen H. Long's "Map of Arkansa and other Territories of the United States." That map, which depicts the Missouri basin between Nashville in the east, the Mandan villages in the north and the Rocky Mountains in the west, was based on the surveys conducted by Long on his expeditions of 1819 and 1820.  The map published herein preceded the official account by expedition botanist Edwin James. The map mistakenly describes the high plains as the "Great American Desert."