Johnson's Africa

This map is a beautiful example of A. J. Johnson's very attractively hand coloured 1864 map of Africa.

The map covers the continent and adjacent Arabia and the Mediterranean. A feature of the map is the fretwork style border common to Johnson's atlas work from in the idle and late 1860s.  Apparently, Johnson introduced this map to replace the more primitive mapping of Africa that followed Colton and which was used used in Johnson's earlier atlases. e. It is, thus, the first of Johnson's Africa series accurately to represent Lake Victoria and Mt. Kilimanjaro. Another notable feature of this map is the Washington prime meridian - at a meeting held in Washington twenty years later, Greenwhich would be adopted by most countries as the prime meridian.

There are five small insets each of which provides and interesting glimpse into the geography and history of parts of Africa. The map was published as plates 99 and 100 published by A. J. Johnson and Ward as plates 99-100 in the 1864 edition of Johnson's New Illustrated Family Atlas. This is the first edition of the Johnson's Atlas to bear the Johnson & Ward imprint. The map is dated and copyrighted, 'Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1864 by A. J. Johnson in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.'

The map is in good condition; there is some acid stain from framing with non-archival materials outside the plateline. The central join has been strengthened, a fee short marginal tears professionally repaired and one short area of loss of part of the decorative border has been restored.The map was printed on two plates and has been joined in the centre. There is the occasional spot of foxing.

This map is not listed by Tooley. It is, nevertheless, a most attractive map that was up to date when published.