J. H. Colton, Nebraska and Kanzas, 1856

Territorial Nebraska at its fullest extending from ‘Kanzas’ to Canada

Like most of Colton’s state maps, this map was derived from an earlier wall map of North America produced by Colton and D. Griffing Johnson. The map details the regions between the Great Salt Lake and Iowa and between the Canadian Border and New Mexico, covering territorial Kansas and Nebraska as well as parts of adjacent Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Utah.

This is one of the few maps to focus on the vast and short-lived Nebraska in its full territorial shape extending from the 40th parallel to the border of Canada (British Possessions). This massive Nebraska territory, incorporated in May of 1854 as this map was being prepared, included most of the northern Great Plains, much of the Missouri River Basin, and the eastern part of the northern Rocky Mountains. By 1861 Nebraska Territory would be significantly reduced by the formation of Colorado and the Dakota Territory.

When this map was printed Nebraska and Kansas had only recently been opened for settlement. Consequently, it excited considerable interest as both a place of resettlement and a dangerous segment of the transcontinental emigrant routes. At the time, this area was sparsely populated by diverse yet powerful Indian nations including the Comanche, Kioways, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Sioux, Dacotahs, Poncas, Pawnee’s, Omahas, Missouris, Delawares, Shawnee, Osages, Crow, Black, and others – whose territorial claims Colton attempts to note. Colton also identifies three of the routes proposed for the Pacific Railroad, the Stevens Route far to the north, the Beswith Route running through the center of the map, and the Gunnison Route passing through Kansas. Settlement of this region would soon lead to the discovery of gold around Pike’s Peak and the 1858-1859 Colorado Gold Rush.

It is interesting to note that Kansas is here spelled with a ‘z,’ as ‘Kanzas.’ This spelling corresponds to the original spelling used in documentation incorporating the region as a territory. The spelling ‘Kansas’ evolved as the standard usage in the 1860s.

One of the most important American commercial mapmakers of the nineteenth century, Joseph Hutchins Colton for years specialized in the publication of pocket maps, wall maps, and guides before embarking on his first atlas. In producing the atlas, he found a publishing niche by transferring steel-plate engravings to lithographic stones or zinc plates, thereby ensuring larger runs and the best quality for his publications. Ostensibly the brainchild of Colton’s son, George Woolworth, the 1855 atlas debuted as a sumptuous publication and one of the most accurate of the period, with each state and country separately mapped and extensively described in a full page of text. This expensive large-format production was discontinued after two editions, and by 1857 a more affordable and popular version took its place. Colton’s 1855 map of Nebraska and Kansas is a fascinating document of the rapid evolution of the Western frontier during the middle of the 19th century.

Rumsey 0149.055 (1856 edition). Phillips (Atlases) 816