A New Juvenile Atlas, And Familiar Introduction To The Use Of Maps: With A Comprehensive View Of The Present State Of The Earth . Melish, John Atlases

43x27 cm. First American from the Latest London edition, corrected and improved by John Melish. Contemporary plain boards, with crude later backstrip, bottom corner gone. Boards stained and worn but quite intact. 38 pp., including 10 hand-colored full-page maps. Title page has a long horizontal tear near the middle with two small mends. Scattered light staining and soiling throughout, particularly at bottom outside corners. This is Melish's first, and apparently the first American, geographical atlas specifically published for schools. Jedidiah Morse had previously published geographical texts and general atlases, but no atlases specifically for schools or children. Morse's earliest school atlas was his 1816 An Atlas for the use of schools which utilized the maps of John Pinkerton. The maps here are all by John Melish, published by Melish, John Vallance and Henry S. Tanner. A very rare American atlas and children's book. OCLC 21578881, 54222320, 953570825. Shaw & Shoemaker 32099. Phillips 4307. Rumsey 0496. Not in AAS.