The Life Of Washington, Maps & Subscriber's Names 1807
The Life Of George Washington, Maps And Subscriber’s Names, Philadelphia: Published By C.P. Wayne. 1807. This is a first edition of the atlas of maps that supplemented the five-volume set of The Life of George Washington that was written by John Marshall, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall was appointed to the court in 1801 and began working on a biography of George Washington soon afterwards; he did so at the request of his close friend, Associate Justice Bushrod Washington, who had inherited the papers of his uncle, George Washington. Marshall's The Life of George Washington was the first biography about a U.S. president ever published and has been praised by historians for its accuracy and well-reasoned judgments, and the five-volume biography was enhanced by the addition of the accompanying atlas with its scarce subscriber’s list.
The atlas has ten engraved maps, eight of which are double-page folding maps, and 1160) all ten maps are present here. They depict the major battles of the Revolutionary War, including the campaigns of Boston, New York, and Charleston, and all the maps have “Published by C. P. Wayne” on them. The vellum-covered boards have blue double-ruled borders around the edge and there are blue double-ruled horizontal lines on the spine. There are blank endpapers with the bookplate of Adams Davenport Claflin, the original owner’s name “Geo Jenkins” inscribed at the top of the title page, followed by the ten plates of maps, then the twenty-two page subscriber’s list at the end; George Jenkins was a subscriber himself from Newburyport, Mass. - you can see his name on page five of the subscriber’s list, along with the names of political figures like Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, James Madison, W. H. Harrison [William Henry Harrison], Dewitt Clinton, and Salmon Chase, who were also on the subscriber’s list. Adams Davenport Claflin was the son of Massachusetts Governor William Claflin, and the Adams Claflin House is an historic house in the village of Newton Centre in Newton, Mass. - it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The book is 4to. and measures 11 1/4 x 9 1/8 in. wide, the blue borders on the vellum covers are somewhat faded, one map has a small chip at the bottom and another a vertical crease, some have creased tips, there is occasional offset and browning or foxing, and the book is still an important supplement to the five-volume set of books by Chief Justice Marshall and an indispensable atlas for those who appreciate Washington’s place in American history, with the subscriber’s list that is often lacking. See Sabin 44788.
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