Map of the Oregon Territory by the U.S. Ex. Ex. Charles Wilkes, Esqr. Commander 1841, engraved map, sectioned for folding, 58.5x89 cm. (23x35 inches), folding English version of the map originally appearing in the atlas of the quarto edition of Charles Wilkes' Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition. Important map of the Northwest, from Cape Mendocino to Dixon's Entrance, and east as far as the Black Hills. Wheat states that "This map was in many respects the most detailed of this extensive area yet published, and for the main Oregon region and the Hudson's Bay Company territories to the north it was an accurate, really quite extraordinary, map. Wilkes did not enter the Great Basin or see any part of the Snake River personally, and therefore drew on other sources, a Jedediah Smith map and some oral information from the Hudson's Bay Company trappers he met on the Columbia..." Though drawn in 1841, the Wilkes map was not published until 1844, in the rare first edition of Wilkes' Narrative (limited to 100 copies for presentation to heads of state and other dignitaries, 25 of which were destroyed by fire), with the regular (i.e. "unofficial") quarto edition coming out the following year from which we believe this one is from. Heading: (Map)Place Published: London, Publisher: James Wyld, Date Published: 1841-[c.1845].