Hitchcock was an eminent professor of chemistry and natural history at Amherst College and was selected in 1830 to conduct a general survey of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The publication of his first report and map in 1832 marked an epoch in American geological work as this was the first survey of an entire state conducted at public expense. The attractive map has 20 different geological types displayed by both color and shading, plus symbols to further locate deposits of plumbago, coal, iron, lead, copper and manganese. This early lithographed map was published by Pendleton's Lithography, Boston. Hitchcock made further geological and mineralogical surveys and reprinted this map with revisions up to 1841. These maps were issued in small quantities and are seldom seen, especially this first edition.

References: Marcou & Marcou No. 200; Phillips (Maps) p. 401.

Condition: B

Issued folding with light offsetting. There are a few short fold separations at top left that have been closed on verso with cello tape resulting in minor staining on recto. A short binding tear at right has been closed on recto also with cello tape.