Historic Map : Burr Map of The East Indies, 1835, Vintage Wall Art

This appealing 1835 first edition map of the East Indies and Southeast Asia was issued by David H. Burr. It covers from Assam and Burma (Myanmar) south as far as Timor and from the Nicobar Islands eastward as far as the Philippines and New Guinea. It includes the entire Malay Peninsula, much of Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam), and the East India islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines. Important cities, rivers, islands, mountains and a host of other topographical features are noted. Political and regional territories are color-coded.

During this time in history, Burma was under British rule, while much of modern day Indonesia including Sumatra and parts of Borneo were part of the Dutch commercial colony of the Dutch East Indies. The French dominated Indochina, including Cambodia and Vietnam and most of the modern day Philippines were a Spanish territory called Spanish East Indies. Only Thailand (Siam) and China retained national sovereignty.

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 1835 by Thomas Illman in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York'. Published by D. S. Stone in Burr's New Universal Atlas.