North America Sheet X Parts of Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas

Detailed map of the central United States published by the SDUK.

The route of the Mississippi River can be seen bisecting this map horizontally, from the southern tip of Illinois to the reaches of central Arkansas. Transportation routes, towns and settlements, and geographic features are labeled (note the legend across the top of the sheet), while topography is depicted in hachure.

The map was published c. 1842 and prominently features Independence, Missouri, near the center of the map. Independence was the jumping off point for many pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail, which was particularly active during this period. The map was engraved by John & Charles Walker and published by Baldwin & Cradock in London on behalf of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK).

The SDUK was a liberal London organization established in 1826 with the aim of providing inexpensive educational material, including maps, to the increasingly literate public of England. It produced several atlases of impressive detail and quality before shuttering its doors in 1848.