Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Map of Rhode Island

Hand colored map of Rhode Island published by Carey & Lea.

Designed by Fielding Lucas Jr. and engraved by J. Yeager, this map of Rhode Island presents a detailed overview of the Ocean State from the first quarter of the 19th centuries. Counties are colored by hand (as confirmed by the omission of Block Island), and townships, towns, and geographic features are also labeled. The locations of significant battle sites and modern manufactories are also noted with flags and small circles, respectively, providing an interesting juxtaposition of the “old” and the “new.”

Surrounding the map are numerous blocks of text outlining the geography, history, climate and government of the state. The last includes a list of governors up to 1824. The sheet was issued as plate number 13 in the 1826 edition of Carey & Lea’s A 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.

Wheat, C. I. (2004). Mapping the Transmississippi West: 1540-1861. Mansfield Centre (CT): Martino Publishing. #348

Egli, L. G., & Phillips, P. L. (1974). A list of geographical atlases in the Library of Congress. Washington: Library of Congress. #1373