Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Map of Louisiana

Fascinating map of Louisiana issued in Carey & Lea’s influential atlas.

Bright original color, applied by hand, vividly delineates the early parish configuration and settlement patterns of Louisiana. Large regions in the northern and eastern regions reflect sparse populations, while the majority of urban areas are concentrated along the Mississippi River. The extensive wetlands at the mouth of the mighty river are depicted pictorially and described in the accompanying text as “nothing can appear more dreary than the prospect from a ship’s mast, while passing this immense waste.” Elsewhere on the map, one can see forts, Native American villages, labeled geographic features, and a flag planted near New Orleans representing the several historic battles that took place there. The title claims of Baron Bastrop, Maison Rouge, and others are noted in the north.

Surrounding the map are numerous paragraphs of text and tables of statistics detailing the state’s economy, history, demographics, and geography. It was engraved by Kneass and issued as sheet number 31 in the 1823 edition of Carey & Lea’s Complete Historical, Chronological, and Geographical American Atlas. This important American publication was issued in six separate editions and three different languages between 1822 and 1827. It was heavily influenced by an earlier European atlas by Emmanuel Las Cases (published under the pseudonym A. Lesage.), which inspired the format of a base map surrounded by blocks of informative text and tables of statistics.

Henry Carey, a political economist and the son of prominent publisher Matthew Carey, and his brother-in-law Isaac Lea incorporated this novel theme into their atlas, which focused entirely on the countries of the Western Hemisphere. It was issued at a time of tremendous political change in both North and South America, and the detailed maps accompanied by extensive text provide a unique, often insightful, perspective on the problems and possibilities of the Americas in the first quarter of the 19th century.