Georgia in 1835 - Savannah, Augusta, Macon, Milledgeville

David H. Burr's map of Georgia was completed by the engravers Illman and Pilbrow and published in 1835 for Burr's New Universal Atlas, a project Burr himself was unable to finish after his appointment as a topographer for the U.S. Post Office, though the entire atlas carries his distinctive style throughout. Rendered in full color by county, the map documents Georgia during a period of rapid internal reorganization, as the state's land lottery system continued redistributing former Creek and Cherokee territory into new counties for white settlement. This first edition, undated on its title page but carrying copyright dates on individual maps running from 1831 to 1835, captures Georgia mid-transformation. The Illman and Pilbrow engraving team, who completed the project after Burr's departure, kept the entire series in a consistent visual style that collectors still associate with Burr's name today.

Savannah, Georgia's oldest city and its principal Atlantic port, and Augusta, a major inland trading center on the Savannah River, anchor the map's eastern half as its two leading commercial hubs. Macon, in the state's center, had grown quickly since its founding in 1823 into a key market town for the surrounding cotton belt, while Milledgeville served as the state capital from 1804 to 1868, a role it held throughout the period this map documents. Rivers thread across the state, the primary means by which Georgia's growing cotton crop reached the coast for export. The map's decorative title cartouche and careful county shading reflect the ornamental style still common in American atlases of the mid-1830s.

This 1835 Burr sheet captures Georgia during its land lottery era, a distinctive chapter in the state's history not reflected in most later commercial atlases, making it a compelling find for a collector of antebellum Southern cartography or anyone with roots in Savannah, Augusta, or Macon. This print is offered unframed in a range of sizes, well suited to a study, office, or library wall. Its land lottery-era detail makes it a rare and valuable document of Georgia's early nineteenth-century expansion.