One of only a few English maps to recognize the Republic of Texas. / The first map to show a fully explored Northwest Passage. Very good. Accompanied by original leather binder. This is an impressive 1845 large format map of the world by Henry Teesdale. The map covers the entire world on a Mercator projection with copious notes and annotations throughout. It is significant for many reasons, but chief among them is that it is one of the few English maps to recognize the Republic of Texas (as England itself did not) - and depict its most ambitious boundary configuration. It is also the first map to show a complete northwest passage following the Deese-Simpson Expedition. The map is thorough, including the most up to date political events and discoveries, but also tends to be biased, although not always towards Anglo-centric interests. For example, the map agrees with British claims to British Columbia relating to the 54/40 Oregon Question, and ignores the discoveries of Charles Wilkes (1798 - 1877) and the U.S. Exploring Expedition (1838 - 1842), no doubt to bolster the competing exploratory claims of Englishman John Ross (1777 - 1856). Teesdale's map is beautifully presented in two sections, each of which have been dissected into sixteen panels and laid on linen. The whole folds into a beautifully tooled leather binder with marbled endpapers. The Annotations The enormous size of this map allowed Teesdale to accommodate a quantity of detailed annotations on natural wonders, historical events, expirations, and political treaties. These are so prolific and charming we will allow them to speak for themselves: Texas is represented at its fullest extent as in independent republic. An annotation reads: Texas was acknowledged an Independent State by England, Novr. 1840. (Fact Check: England never recognized the Republic of Texas - see below.) Just off the coast of Norway, at the site of the legendary Loften Maelstrom, the following annotation reads: The Maelstrom, This celebrated Whirlpool is an immense circle of a mile and a half in diameter; the Velocity increasing as it approximates the center, there forming a vortex, the largest Ship meet with instant destruction on entering it. (Fact Check: alas, not the wonder today it once may once have been.) Off the northeastern coast of Australia the Great Barrier Reef is recognized in conjunction with the HMS Bounty Mutiny: Great Barrier Reefs, here the Ship Pandora Capt. Edwards with 14 of the Mutinous crew of the Bounty on board who were captured at Otaheite was lost, 35 of the Crew and 4 of the Prisoners perished in the latter end of June 1791. In Liberia, Africa: This district has been purchas'd from the Native Chiefs by a Company of American Philanthropists, (called the Colonization Society) for the purpose of forming Settlements for the Emancipated Slaves of the United States, and is now in a flourishing condition. (Fact Check: We wonder at Teesdale's idea of 'flourishing'?) Republic of Texas The Republic...
