A MAP OF THE UNITED STATES OF MEXICO, AS ORGANIZED AND DEFINED BY THE SEVERAL ACTS OF THE CONGRESS OF THAT REPUBLIC [caption title]

by [Tanner, Henry S.]:

Price: $40,000.00
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Book description: New York: Henry S. Tanner, 1846.. Folding handcolored pocket map, 31 x 24 3/4 inches, Original 12mo. front board, stamped in blind and gilt, detached but present. Tear in the left portion of the map (Pacific Ocean region, near the border) expertly repaired. A few small splits at folds expertly repaired on verso. Overall, a very good, attractive copy. In a half morocco box. The Streeter copy of the third edition of the Tanner treaty sequence map, the first with the Frémont discoveries. Hailing it as a much superior production to the second edition, Wheat speculates that Tanner's conscience must have been "pricked" by his earlier production. Texas and New Mexico are unaltered, but Tanner has incorporated Charles Fremont's 1845 map, thereby rendering inland portions and the coast of California in a much more accurate manner, even though the coast line still leaves something to be desired. More significantly, in the latter's case, he has engraved a prophetic boundary line between Upper and Lower California, which, as Wheat points out, "had Disturnell done likewise, that southern boundary might well have been drawn differently in the treaty" (Wheat, TRANSMISSISSIPPI WEST, p.38). No doubt published with the same motivations as his second edition, Tanner has here made a more sophisticated attempt to separate the public from their money. Walter Ristow noted that Tanner produced the first edition of the UNITED STATES OF MEXICO map in 1825, and furthermore cited that he "issued 10 variants of one or another of five states" of the map up to 1847. The present map is officially termed as the "1846, third edition," although it is actually the eighth variant of the map to be issued, according to Ristow's classification. Tanner's maps of Mexico, based on the work of Humboldt, Pike, Darby, and others, were primary sources for cartographic intelligence on Mexico and the emerging western territories of the United States for three decades. For instance, Tanner's 1834 map was one of the few sources to include Stephen F. Austin's recent surveys (Tanner also published Austin's maps). Other mapmakers, such as Rosa, selected Tanner's map of Mexico, indicating the importance placed on Tanner's map as the ultimate authority on the region. As Wheat concludes, it was probably issued in great haste to take advantage of the populace's unending appetite for news of the Mexican-American War. This map's influence proved to be so great that it led Disturnell and Bartlett to incorporate a misconception in their maps that, upon the conclusion of the Mexican-American War, caused the United States to leave Mexico in possession of the territory that held the only viable southern route for U.S. transcontinental rail service. The United States was only able to recover from this misstep upon completion of the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI II, pp.89-90, no. 364; III, p.38, no. 529. SCHWARTZ & EHRENBERG, pp.276-77. STREETER SALE 3824 (this copy). RUMSEY 2822. PHILLIPS MAPS, p.409 (another ed). OCLC 21842347. WHEAT GOLD REGION 32. Martin, "Disturnell's Map" in Miller, TREATIES AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL ACTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Ristow, A LA CARTE, p.207.

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