Title: Atlas of Astronomy
Author: Johnston, Alexander Keith, 1855.
Imprint: William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London. 1855.
Description:16 p: 18 plates
Book location: Linda Hall Library, History of Science Department.

This rarely seen first edition of the Atlas of Astronomy is made up of 18 plates illustrating the heavenly bodies with white star-charts on a blue background. Described by Sir John Herschel as "a perfect treasure of compressed information," it was designed to accompany some popular astronomical treatises by its editor, John Russell Hind, and others. Its author, Alexander Keith Johnston, engraved the plates and all phases of the book's production were supervised by Hind.

References

Brown, Basil J. W.; Astronomical Atlases, Maps & Charts; An Historical & General Guide.

Book description by Pickering & Chatto Rare Book Sellers.

National Union Catalog: Pre-1956 Imprints, v. 282.