King’s Geological & Topographical Atlas of the 40th Parallel

Following the Civil War, the United States turned its military and scientific resources toward the systematic exploration of...

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Following the Civil War, the United States turned its military and scientific resources toward the systematic exploration of the West. Clarence King’s Fortieth Parallel Survey, begun in 1867 under the War Department, traced the corridor flanking the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads, assessing its topography, geology, mineral wealth and settlement potential. King, appointed geologist-in-charge at only twenty-five and later first Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, produced one of the landmark cartographic achievements of western exploration. These large colour geological and topographical sheets, described by Carl Wheat as “pioneer survey maps”, were among the first to present the American West as a continuous scientific cross-section. Rarely found outside institutional sets, they belong to the atlas David Rumsey calls “magnificent”: vast, ambitious, beautiful and still important.

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Following the Civil War, the United States turned its military and scientific resources toward the systematic exploration of the West. Clarence King’s Fortieth Parallel Survey, begun in 1867 under the War Department, traced the corridor flanking the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads, assessing its topography, geology, mineral wealth and settlement potential. King, appointed geologist-in-charge at only twenty-five and later first Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, produced one of the landmark cartographic achievements of western exploration. These large colour geological and topographical sheets, described by Carl Wheat as “pioneer survey maps”, were among the first to present the American West as a continuous scientific cross-section. Rarely found outside institutional sets, they belong to the atlas David Rumsey calls “magnificent”: vast, ambitious, beautiful and still important.

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