[MAP] Johnson's Minnesota and Dakota (c. 1860), Indian Territories

[MAP] Johnson's Minnesota and Dakota. New York: Johnson & Browning, ca. 1860. [11167]

Large hand-colored map, 46 x 36 cm (18 x 14 1/4 inches), clean, suitable for framing. Small nicks to the paper on one edge that will mat out when framed. Some small spots of foxing. Will ship flat. Removed from a bound volume, Johnson's New Illustrated Family Atlas, and is plate no. 52. Good. 

The printed "Nebraska" name to the right of Dakota and plate number identify this undated map as having been printed in only two years, 1860 and 1861. It has the earlier border & the Browning name with Johnson's. Hand-colored in pink, green and yellow. It shows the largely unsettled Dakota Territory and Minnesota as they existed in 1860. The map shows Railroads, Common Roads, Cities, Towns, Villages,Waterways, Mountains, Indian Territories, Passes, etc.

A printed note at the top left corner of the map reads, "The vast region of Prairies from Red River of the North and Mini Wakan L. to about the Gr. Bend of the Missouri R. is the great Hunting and Fighting Ground of Kdakotah, Objibwe, Assiniboin, Arikara. Minitarree and other Nations."

Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827-1884), b. Wallingford, Vermont; school teacher, for some years a book and map seller for J. H. Colton and Co. After some efforts at publishing his own maps, Johnson found success with his Family Atlas, publishing them in Richmond, Virginia and in New York City beginning in 1860. He and his partner Ross C. Browning (1822-1899) evidently purchased rights to Colton's maps, as they appear in the first Johnson's Family Atlas. Johnson updated his maps as cartography became more accurate, and Atlases during the 1860's were bound with maps bearing various dates until that particular map was updated. Johnson and Browning maps were published 1860-1862; Johnson and Ward were years 1862-1866; maps published by A. J. Johnson, A. J. Johnson and Son, A. J. Johnson & Co., date from 1866-1887.

Johnson's hand-colored maps are known for their accuracy to detail and are an important record of internal improvements and westward expansion. All are suitable for framing and valued by collectors.