EARLY MANUSCRIPT MAP SHOWING OREGON TERRITORY AND TEXAS ON THE EVE OF THE TEXAS REVOLUTION

Hand-drawn & colored map. N.p., circa 1834-1835. 15 1/2 x 12 1/4 in. 

A rare hand-drawn map dating to circa 1834–1835, the work of an amateur cartographer who nevertheless demonstrates considerable attention to geographic detail. The eastern seaboard is rendered with particular care, including the distinctive shape of the Outer Banks along the North Carolina coast and the islands of the Bahamas off the eastern coast of Florida. Such details suggest that the maker relied on contemporary printed maps as reference, translating them into a carefully executed manuscript format. Notably, this map includes an early depiction of the Oregon region on a United States map, as well as an intriguing pre-Republic rendering of Texas.

The political geography depicted reflects the rapidly changing territorial landscape of the United States in the mid-1830s. Michigan, Missouri, and Arkansas appear as defined states, while the vast region west of them is labeled largely as Missouri Territory. Significantly, the map also includes a corner labeled “Oregon Territory.” Although the region was still commonly referred to as “Oregon Country” and remained under joint occupation by the United States and Great Britain following the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, American missionary and settler presence began increasing in the late 1820s and accelerated sharply during the 1830s. By the middle of the decade, American mapmakers increasingly began to label the region as “Oregon Territory,” reflecting growing national interest in the Pacific Northwest. Its appearance here corresponds with contemporary printed maps, such as Barber and Willard’s 1835 Map of the United States of America, which likewise began incorporating the term.

Mexico is partially depicted to the southwest, with “Texas” prominently labeled but not yet shown as an independent republic or American state. This reflects the political uncertainty of the period just prior to the Texas Revolution. In 1834 the Mexican government permitted organized immigration from the United States into the region, resulting in a rapid influx of Anglo-American settlers, numbering more than 30,000 by the mid-1830s. During this transitional moment, many American maps began highlighting Texas as a distinct geographic entity while it remained formally within Mexican territory, exactly as seen here. Comparable examples appear on contemporary maps such as James Webster’s 1835 Map of the United States.

As a manuscript map created during this dynamic period of American expansion, the map offers a revealing snapshot of how geography and politics were understood on the eve of two major developments: the assertion of American claims to the Pacific Northwest and the emergence of an independent Texas. Its mixture of established states, vast western territories, and contested borderlands vividly captures the shifting cartographic imagination of the United States during the early era of westward expansion.

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