A handsome example of the 1855 Samuel August Mitchell New Universal Atlas, an important edition from one of the quintessential American atlas series of the 19th century.

Despite being an atlas of the world, most of the atlas is concerned with the United States. The atlas includes important early maps of Texas, and the American West, as well as many beautiful maps of individual states.

This is a late issue of the 1855 edition of the Mitchell New Universal Atlas; the Minnesota map includes Pierce, Davis, and Renville Counties, created from Pierce County in the previous iteration; furthermore, Arkansas has the table of population at the top, not the steamboat routes as previously.

In 1845, Mitchell had acquired the rights to Tanner's New Universal Atlas (which had first been published in 1836). Mitchell published the atlas until the 1850s, when he sold the copyright to Cowperthwait & Co. Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co. published the atlas until the mid-1850s when it was again sold to Charles Desilver.