Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico & Indian Territory Map 1857 Regional Print - Omaha, Leavenworth, Santa Fe, Tahlequah

Charles Desilver published this map of the region between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains in Philadelphia in 1857, a sheet remarkable for being the first atlas map published in the United States to focus specifically on this vast mid-continent territory rather than treating it as a peripheral edge of a national map. The plate appeared in Desilver's atlas at a point when the firm's border style had recently shifted from the plain "rope border" used by its predecessor, Thomas Cowperthwait, to a more decorative uncolored style reminiscent of J.H. Colton's contemporary work, one of the details cartobibliographers use to date individual states of the plate. Desilver's atlas circulated less widely than its major competitors, and this format does not appear in every edition, making surviving examples genuinely uncommon on the market today.

Omaha anchors Nebraska Territory near the Missouri River, while Leavenworth marks one of Kansas Territory's key early settlements amid the sectional turmoil of Bleeding Kansas. Santa Fe governs New Mexico Territory far to the southwest, connected to the eastern settlements by the long-established trade route bearing its name. The map is unusually rich in immigrant and Indian information for a commercial atlas sheet of this date, marking early forts, roads, Indian treaty boundaries and explorers' routes across the plains, and it even carries its own distinct symbol for trading posts, a detail rarely found on maps of the period. Indian battlegrounds and reservations are recorded throughout the Indian Territory to the south, giving the sheet real documentary value beyond its role as a simple reference map.

This map makes a fitting gift for a Nebraska, Kansas or New Mexico family with roots in the territorial period, or for a collector drawn to the rare distinction of being the first American atlas map devoted to the trans-Mississippi West. Its combination of Bleeding Kansas-era political tension and detailed Indian Territory cartography sets it apart from the more purely administrative Lloyd and General Land Office maps the store also carries for the neighboring Rocky Mountain territories. It is available unframed in a full range of sizes, from a compact print for a study to a large-format piece for an office or den.