Plate IV in the Atlas Designed to Illustrate Burritt’s Geography of the Heavens, by Elijah Hinsdale Burritt

Plate IV in the Atlas Designed to Illustrate Burritt’s Geography of the Heavens, by Elijah Hinsdale Burritt

C.1835

Hand Colored Engraving

Designated as "Plate IV," this 1835 hand-colored engraving stands as a premier example of 19th-century American celestial cartography published by F. J. Huntington for Elijah Hinsdale Burritt's landmark Atlas Designed to Illustrate the Geography of the Heavens. The chart dynamically maps the spring and early summer night sky by framing a crowded composition of classical allegorical figures over a detailed grid of right ascension and declination lines. Visually, the print is anchored by the prominent, pink-gowned figure of Virgo (The Virgin), the powerful stalking form of Leo (The Lion), and the massive, green-scaled coils of Hydra (The Water Serpent) slithering across the lower hemisphere. The piece represents a masterful collaboration between astronomical precision and decorative printmaking, noting along the bottom margin that it was "Engraved by W. G. Evans, N. York, under the Direction of E. H. Burritt."

First issued in Hartford in 1833, Burritt’s atlas was created as a highly accessible educational tool to accompany his textbook, The Geography of the Heavens. Elijah Hinsdale Burritt (1794–1838) was an American mathematician and astronomer nicknamed the "Blacksmith Astronomer" due to his early mechanical apprenticeship. He structured these specific charts based heavily on the artistic layout style of the 17th-century French Jesuit scientist Ignace-Gaston Pardies, heavily modernizing the coordinate scales for contemporary classroom use. This chart is incredibly important to cartographic history because it represents the first major, mass-produced celestial atlas created specifically for American schools. Prior to Burritt's publication, astronomy instruction relied heavily on foreign imports; his work democratized stargazing for hundreds of thousands of students and laid the foundation for popular astronomy education in the United States. 

Dimensions: H 16” X 14” W

Condition: some foxing, toned with age