The mid- to late-19^th century was a time of prosperity for American mapmakers and publishers. The Civil War, the growth of railroads, and the westward expansion of the United States all contributed to an increased demand for maps and atlases. Near the forefront of the atlas publication industry for a quarter century was mapmaker and aggressive marketer Alvin Jewitt Johnson.

Around 1860, in a transaction that remains somewhat mysterious, Johnson acquired a set of detailed plates from J.H.Colton, one of the foremost mapmakers of the century, and used them to print the Johnson atlas that was to find its way into homes across the country. Johnson’s New Illustrated Family Atlas was first published in 1860, when the territories of Colorado and Dakota were first making their appearance. The publishers of the first edition of Johnson’s atlas were given as Johnson and Browning; subsequent editions were published by Johnson and Ward. In the first edition, Johnson and Browning were listed as "successors to J.H.Colton and Company".

The Johnson atlas was published in revised editions until 1885. Because of the time period spanned by its publication, the different editions of the Johnson atlas are an excellent chronicle of the westward expansion of the United States, as well as the geographical effects of the Civil War. Johnson maps are characterized by hand coloring in red and green and distinctive borders, including iron scrollwork and a Celtic design.

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