Description
The Second Edition of The American Geography; Or, A View Of The Present Situation Of The United States of America by Jedidiah Morse, with maps, published in 1792.
Octavo, xvi, 536pp, [table]. Rebound in full brown calf, title in gilt on spine. New endpapers. Solid text block, free of foxing or notations. Complete with two fold-out maps by Joseph Purcell and double-folded table of distances. The two maps detail the southeastern and northeastern United States, with a reference to the “New State of Franklin” in western North Carolina. Both maps with hand colored borders, light offsetting, solid hinges. (Sabin 50924) (Howes M-840) An attractive example.
The first edition of American Geography by Jedidiah Morse was published in 1789 in Elizabethtown, followed by this second edition in 1792 and a Dublin edition the same year. Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826) was an American theologian, antiquarian, educator, and geographer. As the United States began to establish itself, Morse saw the need for a proper geography textbook to educate the new generation. In 1784 he published Geography Made Easy, which was followed by the first edition of American Geography in 1789. With annual updates and frequent new editions of his school textbooks, Morse was known as one of the “Fathers of American geography”. Morse was also the father of the American inventor Samuel F.B. Morse.
