A New And Elegant General Atlas
A New And Elegant General Atlas: Comprising All the New Discoveries, to the Present Time: Containing Sixty-Five Maps
by Aaron Arrowsmith
| A New And Elegant General Atlas. | |
 Title page from A New And Elegant General Atlas., George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary. | |
| Author | Aaron Arrowsmith |
| Published | Philadelphia: John Conrad & Co. |
| Date | 1804 |
| Edition | First American |
| Language | English |
| Pages | [65] leaves including 63 maps |
| Desc. | 4to (28 cm.) |
A New and Elegant General Atlas was created by Aaron Arrowsmith (1750-1823), a renowned eighteenth century cartographer. Arrowsmith published intricately detailed maps of places such as Canada, Scotland, and India throughout his career. Known to have had high standards for his work, Arrowsmith was constantly making revisions to ensure his maps were as up to date as possible. This was of particularly great importance since the admiralty and the throne of England used many of his maps. Arrowsmith personally completed the artwork for the maps as well, leading his maps to be well-known for their artistic beauty. After his death in 1823, his son, Aaron Arrowsmith the younger, continued his work.[1]
Arrowsmith’s New and Elegant General Atlas, published in 1804, contains sixty-five maps. It exemplifies the simplistic beauty for which Arrowsmith’s maps were known and incorporates recent discoveries made at the time it was published. Because of Arrowsmith’s goal of creating the most up-to-date maps of the world, A New and Elegant General Atlas significantly displays the 18th century view of the world with precision and beauty.Aaron Arrowsmith, A New and Elegant General Atlas, (Philadelphia: John Conrad & Co., 1804).[2]
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Thomas Jefferson listed Atlas by Arrowsmith & Lewis 4to. in his inventory of Wythe's Library, noting that he kept the volume himself. He later sold a copy of the first American edition to the Library of Congress—a copy at the Library is thought to be Jefferson's (and therefore, also Wythe's).[3] Brown's Bibliography[4] references this copy at the Library of Congress while George Wythe's Library[5] on LibraryThing) lists it as the "probable edition". The Wolf Law Library followed Sowerby and Brown's advice and purchased a copy of the first American edition.
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in modern calf backed marbled paper boards. Contains folding engraved double-hemisphere world map, folding maps of the "World on Mercator's Projection" and Central Asia, and 62 full-page maps (spotted). Purchased from Arader Galleries.
View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
References
- ↑ Elizabeth Baigent, “Arrowsmith, Aaron, the elder (1750)-1823), cartographer and map publisher,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 9 Oct 2013.
- ↑ Aaron Arrowsmith, A New and Elegant General Atlas (Philadelphia: John Conrad & Co., 1804).
- ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 2nd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 4:97 [no.3836].
- ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
- ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on June 28, 2013, http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe
