[COMPLETE WITH THE ATLAS]. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec: Being the Results of a Survey for a Railroad to Connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Made by the Scientific Commission under the Direction of Major J. G. Barnard, U.S. Engineers. With a Resume of the Geology, Climate, Local Geography, Productive Industry, Fauna and Flora, of that Region... Arranged and Prepared for the Tehuantepec Railroad Company of New Orleans. [ATLAS VOLUME]: Maps Illustrating the Isthmus of Tehuantepec

New York: D. Appleton & Co, 1852. First Edition. Good. Together 2 volumes including Atlas. Text volume: 295 [1 blank] pp. (small errata slip bound in between pages 294 and 295). COMPLETE with 1 folded lithograph map of the world, 1 folding diagram (thermal curves), 1 plan, 14 tinted lithograph plates (including frontispiece) with views of Tehuantepec (all by Sarony & Major of New York). Original publisher's cloth, headcap chipped, edges worn, cloth covers scratched and scuffed, lower front joint repaired but the binding is perfectly sound. ATLAS VOLUME: [4] pp. (title-page + list of maps). COMPLETE with 8 large folded lithograph maps (most by (truncated) Barnard), formerly tipped in, now loosely inserted into original cloth chemise (sympathetically rebacked). Maps with splitting along folds, some repaired tears. With faults a good copy, and priced accordingly. First edition. "This book was published to inform the American public of the advantages to be gained by an inter-ocean link built across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, west of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The first part of the book reviews the engineering and hydrographic reports of the survey group, and is a general summary of practicability; the second part deals with the natural history, the inhabitants and the natural resources of the region." (Hill).

"The attractive lithographic plates by Sarony depict people, scenes and buildings in Minatitlan, Ishuatlan, and other points in the region. The plates were extensively "borrowed" by others who subsequently wrote on Tehuantepec. John Gross Barnard had a distinguished career as a military engineer and was responsible for the construction of fortifications at strategic points on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts." (Dorothy Sloan Cat. 21, no. 261).

Whereas some of the maps in the present Atlas have repaired tears, the Atlas is nonetheless COMPLETE: [1] Map of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; [2] 1851 Tehuantepec Survey; [3] Sketch of the Mouth of the Coatzacoalcos River 1847; [4] Tehuantepec Survey1851 (with insets of two villages, including Minatitlan); [5] Mouth of the Coatzacoalcos River 1848; [6] Map of the ports of Laventosa and Salina Cruz 1852 (by Trastour); [7] Plan of that part of the Isthmus of Tehauntepec between the Jaltepec River and Pacific Plains; [8] Chart of the Entrance and Channel of the Boca-Barra 1850 (by Trastour).

From the Dorothy Sloan Collection of Latin Americana.

Hill, pp. 327-328. Hopkins Railway Library, p. 26. Mayer, Poblaciones mexicanas, planos y panoramas, siglos XVI al XIX, p. 309 (with illustration). Palau 375712. Porrua (1949) 8303. Sabin 3480. (Inventory #: 3556)