A Map of North America, Constructed According To The Latest Information . . . Improved to 1825.

It says in the title: "improved to 1825". This milestone map was first issued separately in 1822 and bound in four sheets into Tanner's "New American Atlas" of 1823 and onwards. In the lower-left corner Entered according to Act of Congress, the 27th day of May 1822, by H. S. Tanner of the State of Pennsylvania. An "Improved edition" exists dated 1825. According to Rumsey: "Tanner updated the maps frequently over the next decade, and issued several editions or compilations of the atlas with the title pages dated 1823 or 1825, but with some of the maps dated as late as 1833. The collation of our five issues shows that no two copies are alike and that the maps were constantly updated; however, the choice of maps for each edition reveals a somewhat haphazard approach with some of the earliest states of a particular map appearing in one of the later atlas editions. A completely revised edition was issued in 1839, with the title page and most of the maps dated 1839." Rumsey mentions a 1633 edition of the American Atlas containing the Improved 1825 edition of the map. The Rumsey collections contain an example of the Improved 1828; however, this was a separately issued case map.

The 1825 improved version has many changes in the north shore of Hudson's Bay and the western coast of Alaska, with "Kotzebue's Sound" added and including the 1825 dated boundary between Russian and British America.

Wheat describes the 1823 issue, calling it "a landmark - a great cartographical achievement - and its appearance brought to the fore the engraver who worked with Samuel Lewis back in 1804 on the little map of Louisiana… In the Geographical Memoir accompanying his maps, Tanner states that he had devoted nearly ten years of study to this subject, using a `globular projection,' similar to that used by Arrowsmith. He used Kotzebue, Arrowsmith, Vancouver, and for the British Possessions Mackenzie, Harmon's Journal, and Hearne's map of the Coppermine River. For the United States, he used the map of Lewis and Clark, and by correcting the longitude given by these explorers by that of Lieutenant Graham for Council Bluffs, he was enabled to construct a whole new longitudinal scale for which he placed the `Oregon Mountains' three degrees farther East. He also used Thomas Nuttall's work for parts east of the 100th meridian…"
The map shows the two mythical rivers flowing from the area just west of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, draining the mythical lakes of Timpanogos and Teguayo. With two insets: "Western Part of the Aleutian Islands" and "Comparative Altitudes Of The Mountains, Towns &c. Of North America".
This map of North America was the progenitor of a long line of famous maps" (Wheat, II: pp. 82-87).

The magnificent title cartouche combines various symbols of America, including the Niagara Waterfalls, depictions of a rattlesnake, an eagle, a beaver, a moose, a polar bear, illustrations of Native Americans, and a rendering of Natural Bridge. The picture of Niagara is a combination of Vanderlyn's "A View of the Westerly Branch," used for the Horseshoe Falls portion of the image, and the left part of his "A Distant View of the Falls of Niagara," used for the American Falls portion of the image.

Henry Schenck Tanner (1786-1858) was born in New York City but removed early to Philadelphia. Trained as an engraver, he engraved many of his maps in the 1804 edition of A New and Elegant General Atlas of Arrowsmith and Lewis. He engraved the frontispiece and many of the maps in John Melish's Military and Topographical Atlas of the United States (1813 and 1815). And with J.Vallance, engraved Melish's fundamental "Map of the United States" (1816), the text accompanying which shaped Tanner's thought. In 1818-1823 he published A New American Atlas, in parts, which went to many editions. In 1825 his Map of Mexico appeared, and in 1829, his map of the United States. He also published many atlases.

Read more about Henry S. Tanner and this map. [+]

Reference: Phillips, Maps p 599.