CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Fielding Lucas Jr.

American cartographer (1781-1854)

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ1411601 ↗
Source-derived summary

Fielding Lucas Jr. (September 3, 1781 – March 12, 1854) was an American cartographer, an artist, and a publisher of prominence during the early 19th century. He is known as the earliest successful commercial map publisher in the city of Baltimore. The first of his atlases was published in 1815–17, in which the maps are closely associated with the 1822 edition of Philadelphia atlas by Carey & Lea.

Career history

Lucas founded Lucas Bros. Inc. in 1804 at 116, East Baltimore Street, and became the first stationer 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 dioceses", with a table of comparative statistics from 1835 to 1845.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Fielding Lucas Jr.” as american cartographer (1781-1854). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1781, 1854, 1815, 1822—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1781-09-03. The account is most persuasive where Fielding, Lucas and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american cartographer (1781-1854). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1411601. VIAF identifies the subject as 16016824. The Library of Congress control number is n50048442. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1781, 1854, 1815 and 1822.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Fielding Lucas Jr.”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Fielding Lucas Jr. primary sources, Fielding Lucas Jr. archive and Fielding research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Fielding Lucas Jr.”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Fielding Lucas Jr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.