Lucas, Fielding Jr. “Canada.” [shows US from VA to Maine]

Fielding Lucas, Jr.  “Canada.”  [shows US from VA to Maine].  From A New and Elegant Atlas Containing Maps of each of the United States.   

Baltimore: F. Lucas, Jr., 1816.  18 ½ x 10 ½.  Engraving.  Full original hand color.  Full margins.  Repaired two inch tear into map from bottom.  Else, very good condition. 

A fine series of maps by Baltimore cartographer, Fielding Lucas, Jr. (1781- 1854).  Lucas appears to have become involved in the publishing and book trade while a resident of Philadelphia from 1798 to 1804, when he moved to Baltimore.  In 1807 Lucas joined Conrad, Lucas & Co., and then in 1810 he set up his own business at 138 Market Street.  There Lucas first got involved in cartographic publishing with his New and Elegant General Atlas of 1816.  In the second decade of the nineteenth century, through his Philadelphia contacts, Lucas was one of the major contributors to Carey & Lea’s atlas of 1823.  Concurrently with this involvement, Lucas brought out his own General Atlas, containing 104 maps of all parts of the world, engraved by B.T. Welch & Co. of Baltimore and Young & Delleker of Philadelphia.  Lucas, during his 50 years of residence in Baltimore, established himself as a prominent citizen of that city, serving as President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, President of the Board of School Commissioners, and as President of the Second Branch of the City Council.  But it is for his important role in early American cartography that Lucas is best remembered.  These maps are amongst his finest works, and they well demonstrate the quality that Lucas brought to this nascent industry.