American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Lithographed map of Oregon and Upper Canada, hand-colored, 33 3/4 x 27 1/4 in. With profile of the travelling route from the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains to the Bay of San Francisco. (Map separated into 16 rectangular pieces and laid down on linen sheet, occasional dampstaining and soiling throughout.) Verso bears period inscription: "Charles F. Weigandt. Jackson, Miss. 1849" along with modern ink inscription identifying the map to Caspar Limpert of Ann Arbor, MI and Groveport, OH, "Map carried by them on the trip to Calif. in the 'Gold Rush.'"

The map featured here was originally made to accompany Fremont's Geographical Memoir Upon Upper California. It importantly identifies the entrance to San Francisco Bay "Golden Gate," labels "Mormon Settlements" to the east of the Great Salt Lake, and shows the routes taken by Fremont on his expeditions into the west from 1842-1846 (the third of which Preuss himself joined). This map was the first to show the location of recent gold discoveries in California, making it an important tool for gold-seekers headed west.

An ancestry search for a Charles F. Weigandt of Jackson, Mississippi returned one Charles Frederick Weigandt (1811-1892) who was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York in 1852. He was married in Jackson, MS in 1860. His father's middle name was Caspar, but we could find no other connection to a Caspar Limpert. 

A separate search for a Caspar Limpert returned one Casper Limpert (1808-1877) who was born in Rossbach, Germany, and arrived in America sometime before 1841, when he married Cynthia Rarey in Groveport, OH. 

Accompanied by modern typed provenance identifying the map to Casper (spelled variously) Limpert, and descending through his family.