Author: Phelps. Date Published: 1849. The esteemed publishing firm, Humphrey Phelps, operated in New York City from the 1830s to the 1850s, oftentimes co-producing works with Ensign & Thayer. Humphrey Phelps published books, prints, maps, and, most famously after 1838, Phelps Travelers Guides. The Travelers Guides, like this handsome one of the United States, always featured a supremely accurate and elegantly rendered large folding map of the region in question, tucked within a pocket book detailing hundreds of railroad, canal, stage and steamboat routes. Fittingly, the cover of this pocket book features embossed images of a railroad car and steamship above and below the work's illustrious title cartouche. The map featured in Phelps's Travelers Guide Through the United States is particularly successful. Based on the latest topographical findings, it documents all of the state boundaries and significant transportation routes existing in the U.S. east of Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. The habitations of the Plains Indian tribes are also indicated. Boundary lines and routes are shaded in vibrant and contrasting shades of yellow, pink, green, blue and orange. In addition, inset views of the cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore are included along with one of the Florida peninsula. Most striking about the work, however, are a series of black and white vignette scenes bordering the map. Such vignettes include portraits of Christopher Columbus, William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Williams and all of the U.S. Presidents, state seals, and important events in American history like the signing of the Declaration of Independence. These dynamic illustrations help transform what could have been a mundane, if wholly accurate, rendering of the United States into a visual marvel. Phelps's Travelers Guide Through the United States constitutes an important relic from an exciting time period when sizable numbers of Americans were beginning to venture across the continent for the first time. Condition: (Excellent) Dimensions: Frame: 35" x 1" x 35 - 1/2".