Fielding Lucas Jr. (September 3, 1781 – March 12, 1854) was an American
cartographer, an artist, and a
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
of prominence during the early 19th century. He is known as the earliest successful commercial map publisher in the city of
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
. The first of his
atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth.
Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...
es was published in 1815–17, in which the maps are closely associated with the 1822 edition of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
atlas by ''Carey & Lea''.
Career history
Lucas founded Lucas Bros. Inc. in 1804 at 116, East Baltimore Street, and became the first
stationer
Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter paper) ...
in the United States. In 1806, he became the Baltimore manager of the Philadelphia publishing firm, Conrad, Lucas, and Co., when it opened its offices there.
In 1834, Lucas published the first edition of ''The Metropolitan Catholic Calendar and Laity's Directory'' - an annual calendar, which was renamed ''Metropolitan Catholic Almanac'' by him in 1838. In the 1845 issue, he inserted a map of the United States, "prepared at much expense to exhibit at a glance the extent and relative situation of the different
diocese
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...
s", with a table of comparative statistics from 1835 to 1845. A list of the
clergy
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
in England and Ireland was added in the volume for 1850. Because of Lucas and a younger contemporary, the Ireland-born John Murphy, Baltimore was the major center of
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
publishing until it moved to New York City at the beginning of the twentieth century.
In 1866, his son, William F. Lucas, acquired the Lucas Bros. printing and stationery business.
Books and atlases
Below are some of the books published by Lucas:
* ''A New and Elegant General Atlas: Containing Maps of Each of the United States'' (1814)
* ''A General Atlas Containing Distinct Maps of All the Known Countries in the World'' (1823)
* ''Lucas' Progressive Drawing Book'' (3 parts) (1827)
**Part I: The Principles of drawing in Pencil
**Part II: Colouring and Shading in India Ink
**Part III: A Treatise on Perspective
* ''Picture of Baltimore: containing a description of all objects of interest in the city; and embellished with views of the principal public buildings'' (1832)
Commemorations
As an artist, Lucas helped to publish one of the first
color plate books titled ''Flora's Dictionary'', for which an 1837 review reads, "One of the most popular genres of color plate books in the antebellum period were those devoted to the sentiments associated with flowers. Colored illustrations of flowers were accompanied by a text which guided the reader through the hidden meanings of different blooms, with quotations and poetry appropriate to each. This is a pioneering example of this type, issued by the publishers of many early books with color, Fielding Lucas of Baltimore. Similar works were issued at every level of quality and size, from pocket-sized volumes with crude plates to highly finished folios."
David Rumsey states that, "While the same base maps were used ... the maps in
his
His or HIS may refer to:
Computing
* Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company
* Honeywell Information Systems
* Hybrid intelligent system
* Microsoft Host Integration Server
Education
* Hangzhou International School, in ...
Lucas Atlas are far superior in quality – Welch re-engraved many of the maps for Lucas that Young & Delker has engraved for Carey & Lea."
Rumsey further notes that the ''Lucas General Atlas'' of 1823 was the "finest general atlas produced in the U.S. at the time", setting aside the Tanner and Finley atlases as specialized publications.
See also
*
Ancient world maps
*
List of cartographers
Cartography is the study of map making and cartographers are map makers.
Before 1400
*Anaximander, Greek Anatolia (610 BC–546 BC), first to attempt making a map of the known world
*Hecataeus of Miletus, Greek Anatolia (550 BC–476 BC), geogr ...
References
* David Rumsey's Historical Map collection
Lucas, Fielding Jr
*
Maryland’s Fabulous Firsts* BibleWiki
Directories, Catholic (Catholic Encyclopedia)- Reference to Metropolitan Catholic Almanac
* Peabody archives, City of Baltimore
Family papers*
External links
''A General Atlas Containing Distinct Maps of All the Known Countries in the World''at the David Rumsey Map Collection at
Stanford University Libraries
*
''Picture of Baltimore, containing a description of all objects of interest in the city''at Google Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, Fielding Jr.
1781 births
1854 deaths
American cartographers