Maps

1844 · ref. 63111 — London: J.&C. Walker 9 Castle Street Published by Longman & Co. ca. 1844. 16mo. 3.5 x 5 in. folding out to 13.25 x 16.5 in. dissected 15-panel hand-coloured steel-engraved map linen-backed w/ 3 leaf folding population and mileage distance chart from Dublin by County mounted on front pastedown. Dark gray-green publisher’s cloth portfolio pocket binding decorative borders in blind gilt lettering stamped on front cover a NF copy. First edition thus of this very scarce dissected pocket map of Ireland published against the backdrop of the full impact of the Great Potato Famine which from 1841-1851 resulted in the diaspora and death of nearly 30% of the Irish population and as reflected in the mileage table mounted with the map the population in 1845 had already dropped from 8.2 million in 1841 to 7.7 million by 1844 and it would plummet further to below 6.5 million by 1851. The bulk of these emigrated to the United States Canada and the United Kingdom resulting in the fact that Ireland’s current population still resides below the high of 1841 and nearly 38 million Irish-Americans claim descent from the successive waves of migration much of which channeled through New York’s Lower East Side and the Bowery in the 19th-Century. John Walker 1787-1873 was a British mapmaker engraver lithographer hydrographer draughtsman and publisher publishing nautical charts and geographical maps with his brothers Charles and Alexander in their firm J.&C. Walker located at 9 Castle Street Holborn from 1841-1847 and moving to 37 Castle St. in 1848 where they remained to 1875. Much of their work was published under the auspices of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge or S.D.U.K. Worldcat locates 1 copy Yale. J.&C. Walker, 9 Castle Street, Published by Longman & Co., hardcover