Map of Africa (1839) engraved to illustrate Mitchell’s School Atlas: Comprising the Maps, etc., Designed to Illustrate Mitchell’s School and Family Geography, 3rd Edition, 1851.
One of 25 maps in the atlas, this map of Africa shows the entire continent and surrounding islands, as well as southern Europe and western Asia. It includes the known lands, indigenous areas (with tribal names underlined), major cities, rivers and lakes explored by Europeans, and the routes of a few Western explorers. The Great Desert is the Sahara. The Mountains of Kong and Mountains of the Moon were mythical mountain ranges. Central Africa is mostly blank, as it hadn't been revealed to the West at the time of publication.
The map also shows the distance in miles to other locations around the world, sites of European and American settlements, populations of cities and islands, desert caravan routes, and the main Atlantic World trading areas – i.e., the Ivory Coast, Gold Coast and Slave Coast.
The two inset maps are of Liberia and Egypt. Liberia was founded in 1822 as a settlement for the American Colonization Society, and as a place for freed and free-born African-Americans to settle. The map shows the Pennsylvania, Mississippi and Louisiana colonies. The map of Egypt shows the country and the Nile River up to its first cataract. The Nile is highlighted for its link to classical antiquity, but also for its contemporary significance for exploration, travel and commerce.