Following the American Revolution there was a burgeoning domestic production of cartography. Up to this point the market had been dominated by British published material with very little locally produced. One of the first American pioneers in this new market was Matthew Carey (1760-1839). Born in Dublin, Ireland, he was dropped at just a year old by his nurse and sustained lifelong injuries as a result. Possibly as a consequence he became a shy child and hid himself in books. From an early age he wanted to be a book printer and publisher. He wrote his first piece, against duelling, when he was 17 years old. He wrote a tract anonymously in support of the Catholics which brought about a reward of £40 for his arrest by a conservative group. He left for Paris where he was introduced to Benjamin Franklin. He worked with Franklin at his press in Passy before returning to Ireland where he set up a newspaper. Within a year, he had incurred the wrath of the government and was committed to Newgate Prison for a short while. With a new prosecution impending he fled following his release for America on 7 September 1784 by dressing as a woman.

He arrived in Philadelphia with just 12 guineas to his name. He received a summons from General Lafayette who gave him $400. On 25 January 1785, he published the first issue of the ‘Pennsylvania Herald’ which supported the conservative party. It proved to be a success. However, it drew him in to a bitter dispute ending in a duel with Colonel Oswald, the editor of the ‘Independent Gazetteer’ in January 1786 which left him badly wounded. In the thigh. He was one of the founders of the ‘Columbia Magazine’ and then published the ‘American Museum’.

Geographical texts were being published in the newly formed United States, the first was by Jedidiah Morse whose ‘American Geography’ in 1789 contained 2 maps. This was followed by Benjamin Workman’s ‘Elements of Geography’ with 3 maps. Collections of sea charts were available by Matthew Clark in 1790 and John Norman in 1791. The first atlas, or collection of maps without text, published in America is this work by Carey, his first cartographical work.

The ‘General Atlas for the Present War’ refers to the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and includes seven maps. These like so many American maps of the period are derived from those published in William Guthrie’s ‘System of Geography’, 1785. The title page identifies each maps engraver, these include Cornelius Tiebout, Joseph T. Scott and William Barker. The maps were all included in the ‘General Atlas’ first published the following year. This was clearly the original intention as each map with the exception of that of France bears the note ‘Engraved for Carey’s American edition of Guthrie’s Geography improved’. This example is complete with the original publisher’s floral paper boards with pasted on publisher’s slip on the upper cover listing the contents under the title ‘Carey’s War Atlas’. This is repeated on the title page although the order of maps is slightly different, those of Spain and Portugal and Germany are reversed. Six of the maps relate to Europe and the last is a chart of the West Indies. The title states that it includes ‘Every Place in Europe and the West-Indies, in which the War has been carried on’. It was priced at Two Dollars.

The ‘General Atlas for the Present War’ is extremely rare, the last known auction record was at Sotheby’s Parke Bernet, New York, 14 November 1972 lot 232. That copy lacked the title page which is present here and it fetched $375, a princely sum in its day. The only other example we have ever heard of on the market also lacked a title page and may well have been the same example. Provenance: with manuscript owners name of ‘L. Dupury’ on the title page; acquired for a private English collection January 1998. Not in ABPC; Dictionary of American Biography; Evans 26741; Phillips 6003; Sabin 26868 (1796); Shirley British Library T.Care 1a; Walsh p. 29; Wheat & Brun 687 & 759-64.