Drayton after Tanner "United States of America"

J. Drayton after Tanner. "United States of America." From Encyclopedia of Geography.

Philadelphia: 1837. 9 1/8 x 10 5/8. Engraved by J. Yeager. Original hand outline coloring. Very good condition. 

An excellent map of the United States interpreted by J. Drayton after the great American cartographer, Henry Schenck Tanner. In 1816, Henry, his brother Benjamin, John Vallance and Francis Kearny formed an engraving firm in Philadelphia. Having had experience at map engraving through his work with John Melish, Tanner conceived of the idea of compiling and publishing an American Atlas, which was begun in 1819 by Tanner, Vallance, Kearny & Co. Soon Tanner took over the project on his own, and thus began his career as cartographic publisher. The American Atlas was a huge success, and this inspired Tanner to produce his Universal Atlas, of more manageable size. This atlas contained excellent maps of all parts of the world. All details are clearly presented, and these include towns, rivers, mountains, and political boundaries. In this map, Tanner shows the United States as it appeared just before the middle of the nineteenth century. This was a period of great development and change and Drayton/Tanner's map illustrates this nicely.