Boundary between the United States and Mexico, as surveyed and marked by the international boundary commission, under the convention of July 29th, 1882. Revived February 18th, 1889
[Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, ca. 1899.]
Folio (28 9/16 x 21 3/8”, 726mm x 542mm): with a double-page lithographed title-page and 26 double-page lithographed charts: 20 maps, 1 map in two colors and 5 profiles.
Bound in contemporary half brown calf over marbled boards. Title gilt to a red-sheep label on the front board: “SENATE DOCUMENTS/VOL. 25/[rule]/No. 247/MEXICAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION/ATLAS/[rule]/55th CONGRESS, 2d SESSION/1897-98”. On the spine, title gilt to black sheep.
Rubbed generally, with some scuffing and skinning. Creasing and cracking to the end-matter, with some splits and chips to the edges of the leaves. Paper label pasted to the right-hand page of the title-spread: “Fifty-fifth Congress, 2d Session./Senate Doc. No. 247./Atlas.”
The border between the U.S. and Mexico — first the boundary between British territory and Spanish territory in the Americas — had a few major inflection points: the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau that secretly transferred Louisiana territory from France to Spain; Pinckney’s Treaty in 1796 establishing the U.S.-Florida Border; the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800 transferring Louisiana back to France; the 1803 Louisiana Purchase; the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty giving the U.S. Florida and Oregon country; Texas’s secession from Mexico in 1836 and its annexation by the U.S. in 1846; the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo granting California, Nevada, Utah and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming to the U.S.; the 1853 Gadsden Purchase to facilitate the running of the Pacific railroad through southern New Mexico and Arizona.
Why, then, should a volume be published nearly 50 years after the last major boundary agreement between the two nations? The International Boundary Commission (now the International Boundary and Water Commission) was convened bilaterally in 1882 in order to assess finer points in the shift of borders due principally to the shifting courses of rivers (principally the Colorado River and Rio Grande) over time. By 1889 the IBC was established as a permanent collaborative body that would continually assess the U.S.-Mexican border. The vastness and complexity of the border itself, detailed in two index maps, 19 detail maps and 5 profiles showing the elevation, explains why the present publication, accompanying the Report of the Boundary Commission upon the survey and remarking of the boundary between the United States and Mexico west of the Rio Grande, 1891 to 1896. The vast atlas incorporates data from the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey as well as the U.S. Hydrographic Office.
Item #JLR0691
Price: $6,500