The map depicts parts of northern Afghanistan and the protectorate of Bukhara (corresponding to portions of modern-day Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan). It was meant to accompany an article written by Edward Delmar Morgan (1840–1909) as a supplementary paper published by the Royal Geographical Society. Entitled “Notes on the Recent Geography of Central Asia from Russian Sources,” the paper was published in 1884. Morgan was an English explorer and author. As a young man, he lived in Saint Petersburg, where his father was a merchant, and he was fluent in Russian. He translated several notable texts dealing with travel and exploration from Russian to English. Morgan was also a longtime fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, who served on its council and contributed to its journal. The map was drawn by Henry Sharbau (1822−1904), for many years the chief cartographer of the Royal Geographical Society, and lithographed by Edward Weller (1819−84), a London-based cartographer and engraver who was the unofficial geographer of the society.