France, Spain & Portugal Map 1860 Atlas Print - Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, Marseille

Samuel Augustus Mitchell Jr. of Philadelphia published this Map of France, Spain, and Portugal in 1860 in Mitchell's New General Atlas, the first edition of the atlas that replaced his father's New Universal Atlas after the elder Mitchell retired. The atlas stayed in print until 1893, and this sheet comes from its earliest state, identifiable by the absence of page numbers outside the borders and by the larger Williams map of the world on a globular projection. The engraving is colored throughout, with a floral border typical of mid-century American atlases, and its two inset maps, Switzerland in cantons and the Island of Corsica, make it more than a plain outline of the French and Iberian coasts. At 1:6,500,000 it covers three western European countries as they stood in 1860, the year France received Nice and Savoy from the Kingdom of Sardinia.

France fills the upper part of the map, bordered by England to the north and by Spain along the Pyrenees to the south, with Spain occupying the center and lower sheet and Portugal along the western edge. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the southeast and gives the peninsula its shape. Spain in 1860 was ruled by Isabella II and had just fought a short war with Morocco, while Portugal was governed by the young King Pedro V and was modernizing its ports. Corsica sits in its own inset as the French island that had belonged to Genoa until 1768, and Switzerland is drawn canton by canton, a reminder of the federal state formed in 1848. Paris, Madrid and Lisbon were the three capitals that anchored the region.

An American collector of Mitchell atlases, a family with ties to Spain, Portugal or France, or a traveler who has walked the pilgrim road across the Pyrenees will find a particular gift here. Morse's 1856 map of France and Switzerland is a closer view of two countries, and Cram's 1883 map shows France alone, so this Mitchell sheet is the only one of the group that sets France beside its Iberian neighbors on a single page. Its first-edition, first-state status adds interest for anyone who tracks the changes in Mitchell's atlas over the years. 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.