Historic Map : Mitchell Map of The World in Hemispheres, 1849, Vintage Wall Art

This is a lovely hand colored map of the world on a globular projection by Samuel Augustus Mitchell dating to 1849. It depicts the world on hemispherical projection and offers a fascinating snapshot of the world during a period of rapid globalization and discovery. Africa and Australia are largely unmapped in the interiors with coastlines accurately rendered. The coast of Antarctica is drawn in sketchily, based upon early expeditions. The map is color coded according to continents with counties named but their boundaries not defined. Various important cities, rivers, islands, mountain ranges, and several other topographical details are noted.

Mitchell published this chart in his atlas from 1846 to the late 1850s before discontinuing the series and selling his map plates to DeSilver. This map was issued in the 1849 edition of the New Universal Atlas. It was the last edition of that atlas to be published by Mitchell prior to selling the plates and rights to the atlas to Thomas Cowperthwait in 1850.