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Pub Year	Map Maker	Pub Place	Map Title	Map Price (USD)	Picture
1860	Johnson & Browning	New York	Colton's Kansas and Nebraska	$200	Picture

A lithograph with hand colored wash

Size: 66 cm x 41cm (26 inches x 16.1 inches) Scaled 1 inch = 25 miles

Map Type: Atlas

Excellent condition, a small ink spot near the western edge of Nebraska.

Joseph Colton began his publishing company in 1830 and became known around the world for the best grade of geographical publications. In 1860, perhaps struggling with financial difficulties, and with a new world atlas almost completed, Colton struck a somewhat mysterious deal with Alvin Jewitt Johnson, selling his engraved plates and General Atlas copyrights. Johnson & Browning immediately updated them with themselves named as publishers and "successors to J.H.Colton and Company" for the General Atlas.

Taken from Johnson's New Illustrated Family Atlas, With Descriptions, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, this map is uncommon as it was published for a very short period. The strong decorative border used by Colton is still present in this version published by Johnson & Browning, an indication that this map was published almost immediately after the acquisition from Colton.

In 1862, Johnson & Browning introduced a "steel plate" version of this atlas and the decorative border changed. By 1865, the Colton name had been removed from all of Johnson's publications.

About the time this map was issued, the Pony Express began operations through north east Kansas and the Nebraska Platte River Valley from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. This map illustrates a sparsely populated western Kansas and Nebraska full of indians and wilderness. Kansas would enter statehood in 1861.

References: A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress, #827, Phillips, P.L, Government Printing Office, Washington; American Maps and Mapmakers, page 325, Ristow, George, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1985