Geographical Lottery.

• imprint_number: 1791.027
• title: Geographical Lottery: The objects of this lottery are to promote and disseminate a minute knowledge of the southern parts of the United States of America, from Philadelphia to the Gulph of Mexico, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi. Towards carrying these into effect, the Legislature of Virginia by a law passed the [blank] day of December, 1791, has granted unto William Tatham, under the management and direction of Edward Carrington, William Hay, William Foushee, George Weir, and Julius B. Dandridge, esquires, or any three of them, full power and authority, for a lottery or lotteries, to raise the sum of four thousand pounds at ten per cent. Deduction. The scheme is as follows ...
• sequence_number: 27
• year: 1791
• place_issued: Richmond
• issuing_press: Thomas Nicolson
• author: Managers of the Geographical Lottery.
• notes: Signed in print: "Edward Carrington, William Foushee, George Weir, Julius B. Dandridge, managers. Virginia, Richmond, December 1791." Text is followed by a blank form for gathering subscribers' names.
  Tatham had been appointed the state geographer in 1789; in September 1790, he proposed publishing a map of the southern United States, but failed to find sufficient subscribers to finish the project. Tatham then offered an annual circular letter tabulating the distances over the new roads then being built in the state, as a precursor to a book-length Virginia gazetteer and travelling guide; but that annual was only issued in 1791.
  This title advertises the lottery was authorized by the Assembly in December 1791 to provide Tatham with financial support for further research, particularly in completing the proposed map and the annual circular letter; but this venture also failed to yield any publications.
  Sheet lacks printer credit; given Nicolson's ties to Tatham's preceding publications (1791.025, 1791.026, and probably 1790.022), his press likely produced this imprint as well.
  
  
• Related Bios:
  • Thomas Nicolson

This version of the Index of Virginia Printing was a gift from the estate of the site's creator, David Rawson. The content contained herein will not be updated, as it is part of the Library of Virginia's personal papers collection. For more information, please see David Rawson Index of Virginia Printing website. Accession 53067. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.