2007 Catalog > 14. Abert & Peck, Fremont's Expedition to New Mexico.
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14. James W. Abert / William G. Peck. “Map Showing the Route pursued by the Exploring Expedition to New Mexico and the Southern Rocky Mountains made under the orders of Captain J. C. Fremont, U. S. Topographical Engineers” (Washington, D.C.: 1845). Published in Message from the President of the United States, . . . communicating a report of an expedition led by Lieutenant Abert, on the Upper Arkansas and through the country of the Camanche Indians, in the fall of the year 1845 . . . Journal of Lieutenant J. W. Abert, from Bent’s Fort to St. Louis, in 1845 (Washington, D.C.: Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 438, 29th Cong., 1st Sess., 1846). Lithographed folding map, black and white as issued. 19 1/4 x 28 1/4". Sheet size: 22 1/4 x 31". Old folds visible; very faint occasional spotting. Overall excellent.
Price: $1,250. [ Order ]
Upon his third and
last expedition for the government in 1845, Frémont detached
Topographical Officers Abert and Peck at Bent’s Fort to survey
the Canadian River Valley in anticipation of military conflict with
Mexico over the impending annexation of Texas. Heading a
thirty-five-man party, the two lieutenants explored the entire course
of the Canadian River from its headwaters in northeastern New Mexico
to its confluence with the Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma.
Congress published Abert’s official report in 1846 under the
title Journal of Lieutenant J. W. Abert from Bent’s Fort to
St. Louis. Considered one of the best travel diaries by a
soldier-engineer, it provided insightful observations about the
region’s natural history and the feared but little-known Kiowas
and Comanches.
Issued with the
report was the large foldout map offered here. The map represents the
area from Westport Landing (present-day Kansas City) northwest to
Fort Laramie, southeast to Fort Smith, and southwest to Santa Fe.
Most likely compiled by Frémont’s famous cartographer
Charles Preuss, the map exhibits an amazing level of topographic
detail, especially for the mountains of southern Wyoming, northern
New Mexico, and Colorado where Long’s and Pike’s Peaks
are named. The route of the expedition is plotted with dates marking
the progression of the surveyors. Wheat describes the map as
reflecting the first accurate astronomical observations in what was
mostly unknown country. It continues to be an important and highly
desirable map of the southwestern frontier.
Refs.: Ehrenberg, book review for the “Society for the History of Discoveries” at www.sochistdisc.org; Graff, 6; Howes A10; Streeter, vol. I, no. 161; Wagner-Camp, 120; Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West, vol. II, no. 489.