Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
Description

Fine full color example of Humboldt's monumental map of New Spain.

Humboldt's map of Mexico and the American Southwest was a landmark map of the region, being the most important and detailed mapping of the upper parts of New Spain and for its introduction of hachuring as a topographical style for depicting topography. This map appeared in Humboldt's Atlas Géographique et Physique du Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne . . . to accompany the first German and first French editions of Humboldt's Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne... Humboldt's map of New Spain is the first modern geographical treatment of the region, which includes all of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and parts of Wyoming, Kansas, Utah and California. The map is based upon information compiled by Humboldt while in Mexico at the end of the eighteenth century, much of which appears for the first time on a printed map.

Humboldt's map is the most influential map of the period and was the standard for the region until Fremont's mapping of the region west of the Rocky Mountains in the 1840s. It was also considered by Streeter to be one of the six most important maps in the history of Texas. The map is also one of the most important maps in the cartographic history of California, the Rocky Mountains and the Southwestern US. The mythical second Salt Lake in Utah appears, as does do annotations concerning the courses and sources.

Reference