Washington, Oregon and Idaho in 1864 - Olympia, Portland, Lewiston

Alvin Jewett Johnson published this map of the Pacific Northwest in New York in 1864, shortly after Congress created Idaho Territory in 1863, making this among the very first printed maps to record Idaho's existence at all. Johnson had entered the map trade working for J.H. Colton before partnering with Ross Browning and eventually building his own successful atlas business, converting Colton's original steel-plate engravings to lithographic stones to produce maps at a lower cost, and by 1864 his firm, then operating as Johnson and Ward following the Civil War's disruption of the earlier Johnson and Browning partnership, was issuing genuinely original plates rather than simple reissues of Colton's older work.

This map captures the Pacific Northwest at an especially fluid moment in its territorial history: Idaho as shown here still encompasses the entirety of what would soon become Montana and Wyoming, a vast and unwieldy administrative unit that would be broken apart within just a few years. Early counties, roads, Indian tribes, and forts are recorded across the region, published in the brief window just before organized exploration of Yellowstone would begin to reveal that area's remarkable geothermal landscape to the wider public. Olympia anchors Washington Territory's government, Portland serves as Oregon's principal commercial city along the Columbia River, and Lewiston, Idaho's original territorial capital, governs the vast new territory from its position on the Snake River in the north.

This map is a compelling gift for a family with Pacific Northwest roots, for a transplant now settled in Washington, Oregon, or Idaho, or for a collector seeking the first printed appearance of Idaho on any map. It is offered unframed in a range of sizes.