Nice example of Bradford's map of the United States, focused on the earliest of America's Railroads and its then thriving system of canals for transportation of goods.
The map was printed at a moment in time where the Railroad system in America was still quite young and had not begun to overtake the canals in commercial importance. Over the next 30 years, the balance of trade importance would shift dramatically in favor of rail transit.
This is likely the first American atlas map to focus both Railroads and Canals.
Thomas Gamaliel Bradford (1802-1887) was an American geographic publisher. He hailed from Bradford, Massachusetts and began his publishing career by working for the America Encyclopedia. Then, he edited and republished the Atlas Designed to Illustrate the Abridgement of Universal Geography, Modern & Ancient, which had originally been offered in French by Adrian Balbi. In 1835, he published another atlas, A Comprehensive Atlas: Geographical, Historical & Commercial, and, in 1838, An Illustrated Atlas Geographical, Statistical and Historical of the United States and Adjacent Countries. His interests were primarily in educational publishing and he was one of the first mapmakers to show Texas as an independent country.