IN 1854, J. D. B. DEBOW PRODUCED THE first ever census map. It was a simple map, and it was the only one, but it was the first of its kind and a major achievement. On other other side of the Atlantic, though, the German geographer August Petermann had published twenty-five maps for his European audience using the exact same data .

DeBow's map split the country into four regions based on major river basins.