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Vol. XV II* No. 1 * Spring 2003
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Special Collections Division the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Vol. XV II* No. 1 * Spring 2003 |
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Special Collections recently acquired an exceedingly rare European version of one of the most influential maps relating to Mexico, Texas and the Southwest in the 19th century. The map is part of the evolution of the famous Disturnell treaty map, which designated the final boundary between the United States and Mexico at the end of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. The map, Mapa de los Estados Unidos Mejicanos Arreglardo a la distribución que en diversos decretos ha hecho del territorio el Congreso General Mejicano, was published in Paris by a man known as Rosa in 1837.
The map measures 28 ½ x 23 inches and is sectioned and mounted on linen. Rosa’s map was a literal copy of Henry S. Tanner’s 1834 edition of Map of the United States of Mexico published on the original scale and translated into Spanish. Rosa also is known to have published the 1822 Spanish language edition of Alexander von Humboldt’s Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain. How all of this affects Disturnell and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo is a convoluted story.
The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 was signed on February 2, 1848. It included a map by John Disturnell of New York that was used to help designate the final international boundary between the United States and Mexico. The Disturnell map, Mapa de los Estados Unidos de Méjico, Segun lo organizado y definido por las varias actas del Congreso de dicha República: y construido por las mejores authoridades, was published in New York in 1847 with the notation that it was a “Revised Edition.” The version of the map attached to the treaty was actually the first of seven or more maps published by Disturnell in 1847. But it was the one, according to Lawrence Martin in his study of the treaty map made at the request of the Department of State in 1937, that was “sealed, authenticated and added in February 1848, to the original treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo now in the National Archives.” Martin also determined that a twelfth edition of Disturnell’s map was attached to the treaty at Mexico City.
When the two countries began on-the-ground surveys of the proposed boundary, the surveyors ran into difficulties in establishing the line at the placement of El Paso, Texas, and westward. An international commission consulted the Disturnell maps and two other prominent maps of the period, Henry S. Tanner’s 1826, A Map of the United States of Mexico as organized and defined by several Acts of the Congress of that Republic, constructed from a great variety of Printed and Manuscript Documents, and the above noted Rosa map of 1837.
Why the commission reviewed these particular maps lies in the lineage of the Disturnell productions. A long story that can be summarized by saying that there is evidence that Disturnell copied work on the Rosa map of 1837 along with the 1828 publication by White, Gallaher and White, Mapa de los Estados Unidos de Méjico, published in New York. To make matters even more complicated, White, Gallaher and White, of course, copied from Philadelphia mapmaker Henry S. Tanner’s A Map of the United States of Mexico, which was originally published in 1826 and updated in 1834. Rosa, in fact, published Tanner’s 1834 map in Spanish under his own name.
Tanner’s maps were the ultimate source for cartographic information on Mexico and the emerging western territories of the United States in the three decades after its initial publication in 1826. Tanner’s map was based on Alexander von Humboldt’s 1811 map of the region, Carte du Mexique et des Pays Limitrophes situés au Nord et à l’Est. In addition, Tanner’s 1834 map was one of the few sources that included the more recent surveys of Texas empresario Stephen F. Austin, as Tanner also published Austin’s maps. Tanner listed his sources, including Humboldt and Austin, as well as Zebulon Pike, William Darby, and others. Rosa’s selection of the 1834 Tanner map of Mexico to copy showed the importance placed on the map as the ultimate authority on the region.
The Virginia Garrett Cartographic History Library in Special Collections holds materials relating to the cartographic history of Texas and, along with the Jenkins Garrett Library, is one of the most important repositories for documents and maps pertaining to the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 in the United States. The library, prior to this acquisition, held editions of all the pertinent maps relating to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo except the Rosa map. These holdings comprise a number of editions and states of the Disturnell map, the White, Gallaher and White map, and Henry S. Tanner’s maps, including that map’s cartographic sources. The addition of the Rosa map completes the sequence.
The evolution of the treaty map is most important to the history of Texas and the United States, and especially to the history of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, the subsequent boundary disputes between the United States and Mexico, and the evolution of the boundaries of the state of Texas. Special Collections is proud to add the Rosa map to its collections for research and study.
For more information, please contact Katherine Goodwin, Cartographic Archivist, 817-272-5329, or email her at goodwin@uta.edu .
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This page last update on Wednesday, June 25, 2003