Map Representative Districts by Greenleaf Moses (1 results)
Published by [Portland, ca 1832] 1832
- Map
Seller: James Arsenault & Company, ABAA, Arrowsic, ME, U.S.A.James Arsenault & Company, ABAA
Contact seller5-star sellerEngraving, 13.5" x 14.5" (sheet size). Previously unrecorded map byMoses Greenleafof Washington County Maine, intended for a never-realized second volume of hisSurvey of the State of Maine. The map is stripped to its essentials, showing Washington County and its state-representative districts in outline, presumably based on reap…portionment following the Census of 1830. The voting population for each town and unincorporated "plantation" is given, though only in the northern part of the county (at left) are their boundaries delineated. Given the map's purely political purpose, Greenleaf has entirely eschewed the topographical detail of his earlier maps of the state. The map's unfinished appearance suggests it might be an early proof, particularly when it is compared with a companion map of York County also produced by Greenleaf at the time and presently known in a single example, discussed below. Moses Greenleaf Greenleaf was a towering figure in the mapping of the state of Maine, devoting his life to ever-improved mapping of the region. The pinnacle of his career came in 1829, when he published his new, and substantially updated,wall map of Maine.This was complemented by a text volume,A Survey of the State of Maineandaccompanying atlas,the first atlas of the state and the third of any state of the Union. The map is a remarkable achievement, widely heralded, but theSurvey of the State of Maineis also of the first importance, a wide-ranging summation of the present state of Maine, particularly valuable for commercial and economic data. Greenleaf, however, ever the perfectionist, acknowledged the deficiencies of the work and announced his intention of issuing a second volume: "it was intended to devote some portion of the work to a distinct consideration of the absolute and relative wealth of the State, and its different component parts value and importance of its lands facilities for kinds, extent, and expediency of, internal improvements and its general resources; but the time when the publication must be completed was limited, and an important part of the materials for these subjects could not be obtained until after this time. It was thought better therefore to omit their introduction altogether for the present; in the hope that circumstances will permit, at a future time, a more extended notice of them, and under greater advantages for useful results, than was possible at present." (Preface toA Survey of the State of Maine) The largest single handicap to Greenleaf's career was simply that the market for high-quality maps of Maine was too small for his projects to be commercially viable. Consider for example the 1829 wall map, text volume, and atlas, which had cost him six years of his time and more than $12,000 out of pocket for surveys, engraving, printing &c. He had 565 sets printed and offered by advance subscription at $16 a set, but by early 1830 barely 100 of these had been sold. At this point, though only after much debate, the State rescued him by stepping in and purchased 400 sets at the full subscription price. Seemingly undeterred by the parlous financial prospects of the project, and by the number of sets still in circulation, Greenleaf continued to work on improving his materials. In 1832, he republished the wall-map of Maine, but very few examples of that printing can be traced. In parallel, our map, and the companion map of York County mentioned earlier, are the only known evidence that Greenleaf started work on his projected second volume of theSurvey of the State of Maine(Although there might be reference amongst the papers in theMoses Greenleaf archivein the Maine State Archives). Unfortunately, the volume was never completed and it may not even have advanced very far possibly due to Greenleaf's financial struggles but certainly ending with Greenleaf's death on March 20, 1834, aged fifty-six. Rarity and references We are aware of an example recently acquired by the Osher Map Library, but the map i.
