-
Title: Map of Texas, complied from Surveys recorded in the Land Office of Texas, and other Official Surveys...
WITH, The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas in Two Volumes by London R. Hastings, 1841 - Author: John Arrowsmith
- Date: 1841
- Condition: See Description
- Inches: 19 7/8 x 24 1/4 [Paper]
- Centimeters: 50.48 x 61.59 [Paper]
- Product ID: 308574
Seminal Map of the Republic of Texas, With the Kennedy Book
Map of the Republic of Texas, issued at the height of British interest in the young republic. It is both a political statement of Texas’s expansive claims and a carefully compiled land office map aimed at prospective investors and emigrants.
Shows the Republic of Texas at its most ambitious extent, with the western boundary carried all the way to the upper Rio Grande, encompassing what is now eastern New Mexico, parts of Colorado, and even touching Wyoming in the claim. Within Texas proper, Arrowsmith delineates the original twenty three counties and the newer western and coastal counties formed by 1839, along with Indian tribes, a dense network of rivers, creeks, and emerging towns. Throughout the interior he adds descriptive notes—comments on soil quality, grazing, timber, and “good prairie” or “rich land”—that read almost like marginalia for emigrants assessing agricultural and speculative prospects.
Arrowsmith explicitly cites the General Land Office of Texas and “other official surveys,” and he synthesized Texan government surveys, rival commercial maps, and travelers’ accounts into what was, for 1841, one of the most authoritative depictions available. The engraving is characteristically clean and elegant, typical for the Arrowsmith firm: fine line work, restrained but clear hachuring to suggest relief, and a spare title block, with no decorative vignettes to distract from the geographic information. Two inset maps being a plan of Galveston Bay and one of western North America from lower Canada to Central America with Republic of Texas outlined.
With a printed note under the Republic of Texas and Texas General Land office seals stating that Great Britain recognized Texas as an independent nation. The map aimed to legitimize Texas as a sovereign republic, support diplomatic recognition, and encourage emigration. As inserted into Kennedy’s highly promotional two volume work, the map functioned as a visual companion to his argument for Texas’s resources, climate, and commercial potential.
Kennedy Background
William Kennedy (1799–1871) was an Irish born poet, journalist, travel writer, and British diplomat best known in Texas history for his influential 1841 work, “Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas.”
Kennedy was born near Dublin on 26 December 1799 and educated in part at Belfast, where he trained in journalism before turning to poetry and miscellaneous writing. In the 1820s and 1830s he published volumes of verse and prose, including “Fitful Fancies” and “The Arrow and the Rose,” establishing himself in British literary circles as a minor Romantic era poet and man of letters.
Kennedy developed a strong interest in Texas in the late 1830s and was appointed British consul at Galveston, arriving there in 1842 and travelling extensively in the region over the next two years. Drawing on these travels and official dispatches, he wrote Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas, a two volume study combining geography, natural history, and political history that became a key English language reference on the young republic.
After his Texas service, Kennedy continued in the British diplomatic corps, holding consular posts and contributing to the British Diplomatic Correspondence Concerning the Republic of Texas, 1838–1846. He died in 1871, remembered both as a nineteenth century man of letters and as an important intermediary who helped inform British opinion about Texas during the republic era.
Condition
Map expertly conserved, refreshed outline color, small areas of loss at folds, minimal facsimile to title block and elsewhere, backed to archival tissue for stability. Very good.
Text volumes with Explorers Club bookplate and occasional blind stamp in text. Rebacked retaining publisher's green cloth blocked in blind, spines lettered gilt, yellow-coated endpapers. Contents clean and bright with mild browning, occasional scattered staining, chipping to title page of and preliminaries of Vol. I, chipping to title page of Vol. II with no loss, tear 1.25 inch tear into page 280 Vol. I, just touching text. Lacks maps. Very good. Map is from another volume.
References
Amon Carter Museum, Crossroads of Empire: Early Printed Maps of Texas and the Southwest, 1513-1900. p. 33
Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900), Kennedy, William (1799–1871)
The Portal to Texas History / University of North Texas, Map of Texas: compiled from surveys recorded in the Land Office of Texas, and other official surveys
Streeter Texas 1373A
Wheat 451
Martin & Martin 32