Carey,
Mathew. The General Atlas for
Carey's Edition of Guthrie's
Geography Improved. (Philadelphia,
May 1, 1795). 45 maps. Carey
established a print shop and
publishing house in Philadelphia
in 1784 and became the first
major American publisher of
cartographic works. His first
atlas was issued in 1794 and
his 1795 American edition of
Guthrie's work, offered here,
was his second atlas publication.
Carey's work represents a movement
away from reliance on European
publishing and the development
of an American source to supply
printed maps and atlases for
the American market . It also
represents an American model
of map compilation and printing
that relied on a cottage industry
of independent craftsmen rather
than the European model of a
large cartographic establishment
employing all the activities
of cartographic preparation
and printing in one workshop.
The Library holds a damaged
copy of this important atlas,
one that is missing the key
map of the United States and
a portion of the map of Germany.
The copy offered here would
greatly improve the Library's
holdings of resources that document
the development of an American
map publishing tradition.
