Florida in 1831 - Tallahassee, Pensacola, St. Augustine, Apalachicola

Anthony Finley published this map of Florida in 1831 for his New General Atlas, engraved by J. H. Young and issued from Philadelphia with dedicated inset plans of Tallahassee and Pensacola, the territory's leading planned towns. Florida had passed from Spanish to American control only a decade earlier, acquired under the 1819 Adams-Onis Treaty, and this map documents the young territory as its American administration was still establishing the basic infrastructure of government, colored in full by county division. Finley's atlas, first issued in 1824 and updated annually through 1834, was among the most current American references of its day. Finley's annual revisions meant this Florida sheet reflected the very latest information available on the territory at the time of publication.

Tallahassee, established as territorial capital in 1824 and shown here in a dedicated inset with its planned street grid, sits at the map's center. Pensacola, also given its own inset, anchors the western panhandle with its long Spanish and British colonial history and deep natural harbor. St. Augustine remains the territory's oldest town on the northeast coast, while Apalachicola, a growing Gulf coast port, was emerging as a cotton-shipping hub for the interior. The Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean border the peninsula on either side, with the territory's interior still only lightly settled.

This 1831 Finley sheet is the earliest Florida map in this collection, predating the 1856 Colton edition also offered here by a quarter century and capturing the territory in its first American decade, well before statehood arrived in 1845. It is a compelling find for a collector of territorial-era Florida cartography or anyone with deep roots in Tallahassee or Pensacola. This print ships unframed and is available in multiple sizes. Its early date and dedicated city insets make it a rare and valuable document of Florida's first American decade. It rewards a close look from any collector drawn to the earliest years of American Florida.