The firm of James Wyld was a towering presence in 19th century English cartography. Along with John Arrowsmith, James Wyld the Elder, (1790-1836) followed by James Wyld the Younger (1812-87) and finally James Wyld II (1844-1907) were constantly at the forefront of late Georgian and Victorian geographical publishing.



The core of Wyld's early business was his association with William Faden. The senior Wyld was one of his principal apprentices and finally took over his business upon the latter's retirement in 1823. Faden's maps formed the main part of Wyld's early "New General Atlas". However, even with this advantage, it must be remembered that Wyld's contemporaries were the aforementioned Arrowsmith firm, John Cary, George Cruchley and Charles Smith and Son among others, therefore a very competitive field. Wyld knew that he had to emulate his competitors by continually updating, revising and augmenting his own maps and atlases. Simultaneously, he was also extremely active in marketing separately issued, segmented folding maps and he also produced globes. This philosophy was carried on by James Wyld the Younger to great success; the firm waned under the stewardship of James Wyld II who finally sold the business to George Washington Bacon in 1893.



Wyld's "New General Chart on Mercator's Projection" was evidently one of their mainstay products. It was included in their "New General Atlas" and was also issued as one their segmented linen-backed folding maps. It had a long publishing history, with numerous issues throughout the existence of the firm. The issues of these maps makes for a fascinating sequence of the changing geographical and political development of Georgian and Victorian history.



This is an early edition of the segmented folding version of the chart, issued in 1837. The major points of interest are the advances of Arctic exploration conducted by Sir William Parry and Sir John Ross and to a lesser extent the Antarctic, where a small coastline entitled "Palmer's Land" named after its discoverer, Nathaniel Palmer together with earlier discoveries, can be seen.



The map also delicately draws political features onto the map, not least an accurate delineation of the border between Mexico and the United States as negotiated with Spain in the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819; American westward expansion is very apparent with the amorphous Missouri, Northwestern and Arkansas Territories taking up most of the region west of the Mississippi. South America shows the establishment of the former Spanish colonies as countries. Chile, Peru and Bolivia share the western coast, with Bolivia still shown with access to the Pacific Ocean. Colombia is shown with huge territory on the north western section of the continent.

Africa shows a stark contrast in detail between the North and North Western part of the continent and the central and most of the southern part, reflecting increasing European activity in the former and little information gathered from the latter. Greece is shown as newly independent from the Ottoman Empire and Russian gains are clear in the northern coast of the Black Sea and the Caucasus, a result of the recent Russo-Turkish Wars. Arabia and much of the Levant is also shown as independent of the Ottomans, reflecting recent Egyptian successes in those regions.


The above records are just a small sample of the rapidly developing geographical and political aspects of the early 19th century world.

Original colour. Folded. [WLD4226]