Map of Texas from 1844

German cartographer Carl Flemming first issued this map in 1842 for distribution to potential German immigrants to Texas. Made before the Compromise of 1850 reduced Texas’s boundaries to its present size, this map is one of the last to show the Republic’s claim to the upper Rio Grande, with its border extending into what is today New Mexico and Colorado.

Thirty counties are outlined and numbered on the map, and the locations of American Indian tribes are marked. The map also identifies early roads (what few there were), rivers, towns, and forts often not shown on other contemporary maps of Texas. Some of the inforamtion on the map is questionable, like a description of arid West Texas as “naturally fertile, well wooded, and with a fair proportion of water.”