CAREY, Mathew (1760-1839). Carey’s American Atlas: Containing Twenty Maps and One Chart. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1795.
CAREY, Mathew (1760-1839). Carey’s American Atlas: Containing Twenty Maps and One Chart. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1795.

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CAREY, Mathew (1760-1839). Carey’s American Atlas: Containing Twenty Maps and One Chart. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1795.

2° (375 x 235 mm). 20 engraved double, folding, or full-sheet maps and one chart. (Offsetting, a few tears to folds or margins, marginal wormhole.) Contemporary half calf, marbled boards; modern half morocco folding case (worn, upper cover detaching).

FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST AMERICAN ATLAS ENGRAVED AND PUBLISHED IN AMERICA, containing 17 state maps, including the first map published in America of Virginia as a State, a map of the British possessions in North America, maps of South America and Cook and Clark’s discoveries, and a chart of the West Indies. The map of Tennessee identifies the territory as “Tennassee [sic] Government”; it didn’t achieve statehood until June of 1796. Most of the maps bear an imprint for “Carey’s American edition of Guthrie’s Geography improved,” and they were used in Carey’s publication of that work. They were used again, largely unaltered, for the 1796 edition of the General Atlas, which also included additional maps, and in which Tennessee is identified as “Tennassee [sic] State.” Rare: according to American Book Prices Current, only 7 complete copies of the Atlas have appeared at auction in the last 35 years. Evans 28390; Phillips Atlases, 1362; Sabin 10855; Wheat and Brun, 101, 169, 185, 195, 213, 284, 250, 362, 414, 442, 483, 510, 568, 581, 601, 611, 642, 650, 708, 686.

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