Historic Map : Burr Map of Switzerland, 1834, Vintage Wall Art

This is a detailed first edition map of Switzerland by David H. Burr dating to 1834. The map covers the entire country and shows the division by Cantons from Vaud to Grisons. Towns, rivers, mountains, railroads, roads and various other important topographical details are noted. Elevation throughout is rendered by hachure and political and territorial boundaries are color-coded.

When this map was made Switzerland had just undergone a rapid social and economic change known as the Regeneration Movement. Following the French July Revolution in 1830, the Swiss began assemble and call for fair representation and new Cantonal constitutions. Many of the cantons subsequently established representative governments and instituted freedom of the press and trade. A legend on the upper left quadrant notes each of the 22 independent Cantons which form a Confederated Republic along with its religion. The Protestant cantons witnessed armed marches after its rural population enforced liberal cantonal constitutions. The conservative backlash in the Catholic cantons gave rise to a civil war in 1847.

According to Ristow, although Burr is credited on the title page, he left this atlas incomplete. He was appointed as topographer to the U.S. Post Office, and of the siin xty-three maps finally included in this atlas, only completed eight. The rest of the maps were then completed by Illman and Pilbrow in Burr's style. This map was ‘Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1834 by Thomas Illman in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York', but was not published until the atlas was released in 1835. Published by D. S. Stone in Burr's New Universal Atlas.