COLTON, Joseph Hutchins, (1800-1893). Colton's Map of the Southern States of America, Showing the whole Seat of the War on the Seabord and in the in the Interior, Designating Every Town, Railway and Stream; also showing the Forts and Fortifications. London: Bacon and Co., 1862. Fine folding lithographed map, two sheets joined (39 4/8 x 57 inches) laid down on cartographical linen in 55 segments, with insets of "Southern part of Florida" and "Colton's map of the United States showing the proposed railroad routes to the Pacific Ocean" and with the "United States Census for 1860" all lower right, all coloured in pink to denote "free, or non-slaveholding states", yellow to denote "border slave states" and green to show "seceded or confederate states" (some browning at folds). Folding into original purple cloth with original green printed paper label on the front cover, two green printed paper advertisements as paste-down and on the verso of the top right-hand corner (a bit scuffed).
First published in 1861, this map shows the southern, the majority of them Confederate, states of Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, their adjoining territories and all important military forts and 'improvements'. In 1862 when this edition of Colton's map was published, America was at its most divided and in the violent throes of Civil War (1861-1865). Between 1831 and 1890, the Colton firm dominated American map publishing, and their atlases were the finest produced in the U.S. during the nineteenth century. The company was founded by Joseph Hutchins Colton (1800-1893), who had no formal training in geography or cartography; he began by purchasing copyrights of maps prepared by other individuals or companies, and his principal role was to manage the production and distribution of the maps. His first maps were drawn by the esteemed cartographer David H. Burr in the 1830s. By the 1850s Colton was also publishing guidebooks, atlases and immigrant and railroad maps. The firm was renamed G.W. & C.B. Colton in the 1860s when Colton was succeeded by his sons, George Woolworth Colton (1827-1901) and Charles B. Colton (c. 1831-1916). It is believed that George Colton compiled the company's 1855 Atlas of the World and served thereafter as the firm's principal map compiler, cartographer and engraver. The Colton firm refused to compromise quality, choosing to compete for sales in the more expensive international market rather than the cheap domestic one. For this reason, all maps were printed with steel plates, rather than as wax engravings, which was the most common method used at the time.