Antique 1823 N America Map, Fielding Lucas Jr, Young & Delleker Framed Engraving

1823 Fielding Lucas Jr North America Map (General Atlas) Framed Engraving

Description

Antique map of North America from A General Atlas Containing Distinct Maps of all the Known Countries in the World (entered/published June 3, 1823) by Fielding Lucas Jr. of Baltimore. 

Fielding Lucas Jr. (1781–1854) was one of Baltimore’s most important early 19th-century publishers and is widely credited as an early successful commercial map/atlas publisher in the city—his atlases are a great snapshot of how Americans were picturing the world in the post-Revolution / early expansion era.

This particular plate is the atlas’s North America map and is credited on the sheet “Drawn and Published by F. Lucas Jr. Baltimore” with engraving by Young & Delleker (Philadelphia)—a known early American engraving firm.

Across this 1823-era North America map, Indigenous presence is shown the way early 19th-century atlas makers typically did it: by labeling broad regions with tribal/nation names (often using the period word “Indians”) rather than drawing fixed political borders. You’ll see large areas marked for nations such as the Cree, Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Chippeway/Chippewa, and others across Canada and the northern Plains/Great Lakes—presented more as cultural/territorial homelands than surveyed boundary lines. In the eastern half of the continent, the map includes tribal identifications in and around the Great Lakes and interior, reflecting how European and American geographers still relied heavily on Indigenous geographic knowledge while, at the same time, U.S. expansion pressures were accelerating. Lots of very interesting things to note like this map being Pre-Texas joining the United States (Texas annexation wouldn’t happen until 1845), so the political geography reflects an earlier U.S./Mexico/North American landscape. Uses period cartographic conventions like the “Meridian of Washington” and early longitude references—details you typically only see on early 1800s atlas maps (and they look fantastic framed). Shows early place names, coastlines, rivers, and territorial labeling typical of American atlases produced right as the country was rapidly expanding westward.

Framed and ready to display.

Additional Details

• Title on map: NORTH AMERICA

• Atlas: A General Atlas… (Fielding Lucas Jr., Baltimore) 

• Date associated with the atlas entry: June 3, 1823 

• Hand Drawn and Colored by Fielding Lucas Jr.

• Engraver: Young & Delleker (Philadelphia)

• Dimensions (framed): approx. 17" H x 14" W 

• Weight: 2 lb 6 oz

Condition Notes (Please closely inspect all photos)

• Map: Age toning with scattered foxing/spots and a few visible discoloration marks (see close-ups).

• Mat/Frame: Mat shows age toning; frame has surface wear/scuffs consistent with display use.

• Back: Pencil note on the back covering referencing the atlas/date and a hanging wire present 

• Coloring: The yellow and red portions have heavily faded since original pressing (as they tend to do from this time period). However its still legible, but perhaps not immediately noticeable. The blue portions have maintaned pretty nicely. We have not/will not open the back and cannot speak to any condition inside of the frame besides what can be seen by the eye