Historic Map : Johnson Map of Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Columbia and Ecuador, 1863, Vintage Wall Art

This is a very attractive example of Johnson and Ward's 1863 map of the northwestern part of South America. Includes Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, New Granada (Colombia), Venezuela, British Guiana, Surinam, French Guiana and Chile as well as adjacent portions of the Brazil, particularly the Amazon. It offers excellent detail both along the coast and inland, especially along navigable rivers. Numerous jungle waterfalls are noted. The Amazon region is unsurprisingly vague though a few river ways and missionary stations are noted. Inset maps along the left border detail Chile and Lima. An engraved view in the lower left quadrant shows the Juan Fernandez Islands. Another inset at right center shows Valparaiso.

As this map was being drawn this region was in the midst of political upheaval and civil war. Venezuela was in the midst of its bloody Federal War (1859-1863) in which a significant percentage of the population perished. Colombia was then under the Confederacion Granadina, a short lived federal republic that consisted of modern day Colombia and Panama. The Confederacion, facing strong opposition from both liberal and conservative elements, dissolved in 1863 in the midst of the Colombian Civil War (1860 – 1862).

This map features the strapwork style border common to Johnson's atlas work from 1860 to 1863. Published by Johnson and Ward as plate no. 65 in the scarce 1863 edition of Johnson's Family Atlas.