Alvin Jewett Johnson; 1827 - 1884.

New York based Johnson was initially a book salesman for the J H Colton company. He soon formed his own partnership with Browning and became a publisher of bibles, atlases and encyclopedias; and a competitor to Colton (and to the Augustus Mitchell Company, another noted map publisher of the time). He managed to acquire a large number of 1850s Colton's plates, which he updated and collated to issue his "Family Atlas" in 1860.
Interestingly, this atlas was printed simultaneously in New York and Richmond, insuring sales on both sides of the Civil War divide.
In 1863, after the departure of Browning, he joined up with Ward to continue and expand the successful business which published the Family Atlas till 1890.

Johnson's Florida.

This map (14 3/8" X 11 7/16" at the neat line) was probably designed for J H Colton's 1859 "General Atlas".
The present item was printed for the 1868 issue of Johnson's "Family Atlas".
Notice that in spite of Browning leaving the Johnson company in 1863, his name is still prominently shown on this map.
After the end of the third and last Seminole War, the whole land of the state has been taken over from the Indians, it is now partitioned into 37 counties (a good illustration of the inexorable push of new comers: in 1821 at the establishment of the Florida Territory, there were only four counties in the whole land: Escambia, Jackson, Duval and St Johns. There are now 67 counties in Florida).
Notice how prominent New Smyrna had become (quasi deserted after its settlers abandoned it in 1777), it was a major Confederate blockade run port for European goods (unloaded and carried by mule trains to St Augustine).
A few oddities:
- on the Dry Tortugas, Fort Jefferson is not mentioned (a Union prison during the Civil War, it had in particular had the infamous Dr Mudd as an inmate).
- Fort Dallas, predecessor of Miami, is here misnamed as Ft Dallis.
No text on verso.