Spain & Portugal Map 1860 Family Atlas Gibraltar Inset Print - Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Gibraltar, Málaga

A.J. Johnson drew this Spain and Portugal for Johnson's New Illustrated Family Atlas, published by Johnson and Browning of New York in 1860, the successors to J.H. Colton and Company. The catalog describes it as a first edition, first issue, of an atlas of fifty-five maps. The sheet is in full color, measures 43 by 32 centimeters at a scale of 1:3,231,360, and carries an inset of Gibraltar, with the provinces distinguished by color and a decorative border around the whole. The catalog description adds that the map shows significant cities, rivers and mountain ranges and labels the surrounding seas. It shows the peninsula in 1860, a year of war with Morocco, and it was drawn for American families.

In 1859 and 1860 Spain fought a short war with Morocco, which ended in April 1860 with the Treaty of Wad Ras, and Queen Isabella II reigned in Madrid. Portugal was ruled by King Pedro V, who would die the following year, with Lisbon as the capital. The inset of Gibraltar, which the catalog calls a British overseas territory, an important naval base and a point of contention between Britain and Spain, shows the Rock opposite the Moroccan coast. Johnson's maps of Europe came, according to the catalog, from D. Griffing Johnson's Map of the World of 1847, updated for the atlas.

A collector of American family atlases, a traveler who has stood at Gibraltar, or a family with roots in Spain or Portugal will find a pleasing gift here. TheMapVault's Colton sheet of 1856 also carries a Gibraltar inset, since Johnson and Browning succeeded J.H. Colton and Company, whereas this Johnson sheet of 1860 is from a different atlas, the first issue of a family atlas with a decorative border of its own. Like every print in the collection, it ships unframed and is available in a full range of sizes, from a compact desk piece to a large-format statement print.