Historic Map : S.D.U.K. Map of Canada and The United States, 1848, Vintage Wall Art

This is a fascinating 1848 full color edition of the S.D.U.K. map of the United States including part of Canada. The map covers the United States east of the Mississippi as well as the Trans-Mississippi territories of Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri. Several Indian tribes are identified, including the Chippeways, Siouin x, Foin xes, and others. Wisconsin and Iowa are shown with amorphous boundaries. Most of what is today Wisconsin is identified as 'Northwest Territory.' The map also includes profiles of 5 canals in the lower right quadrant and the United States census of 1830 listing the free and slave population according to states.

This ephemeral map details United States during a period of rapid development and westward expansion. Throughout the 1840s emigration and settlement to the west of the Mississippi led to a transformation of the national map. The present example focuses on the eastern portion of the country in the early days of the Mexican-American War. Texas, in 1846, joined the Union leading to U.S. invasion of Mexican California and the subsequent events of the Mexican-American War.

Published in 1848 by Charles Knight of 22 Ludgate Street for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, or S.D.U.K. This was most likely the last edition of the S.D.U.K. atlas to be published before the society formally closed its doors. However, it is known that subsequent reissues of the S.D.U.K. atlas were printed well into the 1870s by Chapman and Hall, who acquired the original plates.