Landmark American atlas in elephant folio, the first national atlas of the USA and also first ever example of national atlas, titled "Statistical atlas of The United States" was compiled by superintendent of the 1870 census F. A. Walker and published in 1874. Publishing of the atlas was a huge milestone in US cartography, proving it can compete with the more advanced European cartography.
In 60 single pages of maps (often in double page arrangement), the atlas provided a comprehensive way to interpret comparative statistics of human, political or physical geography, on a national level.
The later editions had been published each decade, however couple of the editions just after the first edition have not surpassed the first edition in terms of size nor in the amount of data displayed.
Main parts of the atlas:
- Part 1 - Physical features of the United States
- Part 2 - Population, social and industrial statistics
- Part 3 - Vital statistics
The maps are clustered into thematic topics accompanied by a commentary, containing statistical data, charts and simplified maps.
Maps from the part 1 - Physical features of the United States
- River systems
- Woodlands
- Rainfall
- Storm frequency and centres
- Temperature (annual mean, hottest and coldest weeks)
- Isobars
- Hypsometric sketch
- Coal measures
- Geological formations
Maps from the part 2 - Population, social and industrial statistics
- Area and political divisions
- Density of population
- Constituent elements of population
- Colored population
- Foreign population
- Illiteracy
- Church accommodation
- Occupations of the people
- Wealth
- Dept, State and local
- Taxation, state and local
- Fiscal chart
- Crops
- Pacific coast maps
Maps from the part 3 - Vital statistics
- Predominating sex
- Age and sex
- Birth rate
- Death (from consumption, malarial diseases)
- The affilicted classes (blind deaf, insane, idiots, by age and sex)
- The affilicted classes (by race and nationality and by color and nationality)
The weakest point of this atlas is its style of binding. Unlike in earlier European atlases, where maps to be open flat completely flat, this atlas was bound as a normal book, making it harder to grasp the content of the maps along the centre fold.
