(Click the thumb nail to see a larger image)

Pub Year	Map Maker	Pub Place	Map Title	Map Price (USD)	Picture
1835	Tanner, Henry S.	Philadelphia	A New Map of Arkansas with its Canals, Roads and Distances.	$550	Picture

A copper plate engraving by H.S. Tanner, hand-colored.

Size: 37 cm x 28 cm, Scale: 1 inch = approximately 33 miles

Map Type: Atlas

Printed on cotton rag paper in superior condition

Henry Schenck Tanner (1786-1858) followed his brother, Benjamin, into the engraving business and soon realized that American interest in the West was revealing an entrepreneurial opportunity in cartography and map compilation. He engraved maps for early map maker John Melish, and from 1819 to 1823, H. S. Tanner produced an Atlas of his own, soon to be considered one of the great American atlases, The New American Atlas. This atlas was an assembly of large-scale maps of the United States and the world, and the atlas was revised and published until 1839. In response for demand for a more convenient sized atlas, Tanner revealed an updated work, The New Universal Atlas.... in 1833, from which this map was taken.

The The New Universal Atlas project was completed in 1836 and was quickly considered one of the finest and most interesting American atlases of it's time. This map of Arkansas, from the first edition of Tanners atlas, accurately displays roads with distance markings between towns along with rivers, mountains and other topographical features. There are three lists of Steam Boat Routes including the stopping places and distances between: Little Rock to New Orleans, Little Rock to Pittsburg, and Little Rock to Fort Gibson.

This is a superb, very colorful and detailed map of early Arkansas, as it was during the expansion of the American West and just three years before statehood.

References: A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress, 774-21, Phillips, P.L, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1909; American Maps and Mapmakers, chapter 13, Ristow, George, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1985