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Description

First Atlas of the State of Minnesota -- with the Color Lithographed Views of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Winona.

Folio atlas of the states of Minnesota, with the three additional views of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Winona.

Walter Ristow "Alfred T. Andreas and his Minnesota Atlas":

In 1874, An Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Minnesota introduced a new format and pattern, as well as a new distribution policy for state atlases. The Minnesota volume was the apex in the career of its publisher, Alfred T. Andreas, one of the most prolific and successful atlas producers of the post-Civil War period. Andreas was representative of the enterprising and vigorous group of young men who revitalized the map and atlas publishing industry during the 1860s and 1870s, principally in the new and rapidly growing states of the upper Mississippi Valley. The aggressive operational and promotional techniques of these businessmen differed radically from the practices of the established cartographic firms.

Walter Ristow wrote an article for Minnesota History on the Andreas Atlas which can be found here: collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/40/v40i03p120-129.pdf

See David Rumsey (3034) for an edition bound in gilt red cloth, apparently a deluxe edition. There he comments that it is rare to find the atlas with the three views still present.

A.T. Andreas

Alfred T. Andreas (1839-1900) was a tour de force when it came to commercial cartography and promotion. He built a sales machine that had agents criss-crossing the states he intended to map, selling subscription in return for portraits being placed in the back of his atlases. Andreas was especially active in the Upper Midwest; he was repsonsible for state atlases of Minnesota (1874), Illinois (1876), Wisconsin (1878), and Iowa (1875).

Ristow says of Andreas' plans for future state atlases:

ANDREAS anticipated that the Minnesota volume would be the first in a series of illustrated state historical atlases. As soon as his surveyors and canvassers had completed their work in Minnesota, they were accordingly shifted to Iowa to begin work on an atlas there. Procedures for preparing the Iowa atlas and for soliciting subscriptions and contracts for illustrations and biographical sketches were the same as for the Minnesota volume.
Condition Description
Rebound utilizing original gilt-lettered cloth cover piece. Three views with small losses and restorations at vertical folds. Removed from book and housed in mylar for safe keeping. Some restorations in the book.
Reference
Rumsey 3034; P2007; Checklist of printed maps of the Middle West to 1900, 7-0857; LC United States atlases, L1901; Ristow, American maps and mapmakers, p. 433-437.
A. T. Andreas Biography

Alfred T. Andreas (1839-1900) was a tour de force when it came to commercial cartography and promotion. He built a sales machine that had agents crisscrossing the states he intended to map, selling subscriptions in return for portraits being placed in the back of his atlases. Andreas was especially active in the Upper Midwest; he was responsible for state atlases of Minnesota (1874), Illinois (1876), Wisconsin (1878), and Iowa (1875).

Ristow says of Andreas' plans for future state atlases:

ANDREAS anticipated that the Minnesota volume would be the first in a series of illustrated state historical atlases. As soon as his surveyors and canvassers had completed their work in Minnesota, they were accordingly shifted to Iowa to begin work on an atlas there. Procedures for preparing the Iowa atlas and for soliciting subscriptions and contracts for illustrations and biographical sketches were the same as for the Minnesota volume.