Johnson’s Map of Florida.

WARD, Benjamin P. and Alvin Jewett Johnson.

$1,800.00

Item Number: 138512

New York: Johnson and Ward, c. 1866.

Rare 19th century example of Johnson’s famed post-Civil War era map of the state of Florida. One page, the hand-colored lithographic map depicts the state in full with color coding according to county shortly following the close of the American Civil War with references to towns, railroads, villages, depots, swamps, the territories of Native American tribes, forts and battle sites related to the Seminole Wars, Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades, Indian Hunting Grounds between Fort Poinsett and Key Biscayne Bay, Tampa Bay and the Okefenokee Swamp. Additionally notes the course of a proposed canal route leading from Tampa to the Atlantic and the Arredondo Grant to the west of St. Augustine. An inset map in the lower left hand quadrant details the Florida Keys. Featuring the fretwork style border common to Johnson’s atlas work from 1863 to 1869, the map was published by Alvin Jewett Johnson and Benjamin P. Ward as plate number 43 in the 1866 edition of Johnson’s New Illustrated Family Atlas, the last edition of the Johnson Atlas to bear the Johnson and Ward imprint. In near fine condition. Double matted and framed. The entire piece measures 22 inches by 15.5 inches.

Historical records indicate that Paleo-Indians entered Florida at least 14,000 years ago, by the 16th century, the primary Native American tribes included the Apalachee of the Florida Panhandle, the Timucua of northern and central Florida, the Ais of the central Atlantic coast, and the Calusa of southwest Florida, with many smaller groups throughout what is now Florida. Florida was the first region of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans. The earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León who spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2, 1513 and named it La Florida in recognition of the verdant landscape and because it was the Easter season, which the Spaniards called Pascua Florida. At various points in its colonial history, Florida was administered by Spain and Great Britain and on March 3, 1845, Florida was admitted as the 27th state of the Union. The principal location of the Seminole Wars (the longest and most extensive of Indian Wars in United States history fought between 1816 and 1858), Florida declared its secession from the Union on January 10, 1861, and was one of the seven original Confederate States. After the Civil War, Florida was restored to the Union on June 25, 1868.