9 1 Z.7 L37e LIBi.'ARY Early Maps of North America Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/earlymapsofnorthOOIunn EARLY MAPS OF NORTH AMERICA ROBERT M. LUNNY The New Jersey Historical Society Newark, New Jersey • ig6i COPYRIGHT © 1961, BY THE NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY OP CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: MAP 61-19 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY MERIDEN GRAVURE COMPANY, MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT COMPOSITION BY CLARKE & WAY, INC., NEW YORK, N. Y. DESIGNED BY BERT CLARKE 9/Z.7 Foreword This small volume, Early Maps of North America, is the result of a cooperative effort between the map- making firm of C. S. Hammond & Company and the New Jersey Historical Society. The Society is grateful for having had the opportunity to assist C. S. Hammond & Company in commemorating its sixtieth anniversary of illustrious achievement. If our Society can participate in bringing matters of historical interest to the attention of the American public at large as well as to New Jersey's residents while at the same time making known the accomplish- ments of one of the state's leading concerns, we feel we have justified our existence. We extend, therefore, to C. S. Hammond & Company our congratulations on this important anniversary. May this event be but a prelude to greater cooperation between New Jersey industry and the New Jersey Historical Society. And may the results of this venture bring pride and satisfaction to the members of the Society and increased enjoyment and knowledge to all interested in the history of maps and map makers. Harry O. H. Frelinghuysen President Acknowledgments A number of persons have been very kind, helpful and encouraging to me while writing this short book and collecting the maps to illustrate it. A number of private collectors and institutions have been equally kind in lending to the exhibition of sixty maps opening in the Museum of the Society simultaneously with publication of this volume by the New Jersey Historical Society. The list of lenders to the show at the Society must mention first the Library of Congress, which is drawing so generously on its treasures in the Map Division, the Rare Book Division and the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection. Without the cooperation of the Library of Congress, many maps of greatest interest and rarity would not be shown. Other institutions generously lending are: The American Geographical Society, the New- York Historical Society, New York Public Library, Newark Public Library, Princeton University Library, Rutgers University Library and Yale University Library. Collectors who joined in are: Lawrence T. Clark, Dr. Peter J. Guthorn, Boies Penrose, Lessing J. Rosenwald and Thomas W. Streeter. To all of them the New Jersey Historical Society is most grateful. The author himself is grateful also to the following persons for their valuable suggestions on both the book and the exhibition : Arch C. Gerlach, Chief, and Walter W. Ristow, Mrs. Clara Egli LeGear, Richard S. Ladd and Richard W. Stephenson of the Map Division of the Library of Congress, and to Mrs. LeGear and Dr. Ristow especially for reading the manuscript of the book. He is equally indebted to Frederick R. Goff, Chief, Rare Book Division, and Herbert J. Sanborn, Exhibits Officer, of the Library of Congress, and to Lewis M. Stark, Chief, and Mrs. Maud D. Cole of the Rare Book Division and Gerard L. Alexander, Chief, Map Division of the New York Public Library. Dr. Howard C. Rice, Jr., Chief of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of Prince- ton University Library, was very helpful in making the generous selection from that splendid collection. Others who have made excellent suggestions are Alexander O. Vietor, Curator of Maps of Yale University Library, and Donald A. Sinclair, Curator of Special Collections of Rutgers University Library. John F. Fleming and Harry Shaw Newman of New York were both most helpful. Miss Dorothy E. Miner of the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore and Walter Muir Whitehill of the Boston Athenaeum both drew on their stores of good ideas. Working with Bert Clarke and the Meriden Gravure Company, designer and printer of this book respectively, is again a great pleasure. To all of them and to Bernard Bush and Howard W. Wiseman of the staff of the Society my thanks are due for their cooperation in working on a most interesting task. Robert M. Lunny Far Hills, New Jersey October 12, 1961 EARLY MAPS OF NORTH AMERICA I. The Enterprise of the Indies IN 1492, the very year that Christopher Columbus made his famous first voyage of exploration to the westward, Martin Behaim of Nuremberg finished construction of a terrestrial globe. Behaim spent much of his life in Portugal and the Azores, was engaged in scientific work at the court of John II and had sailed in early Portuguese voyages along the west coast of Africa. Like many men early in the age of discovery, he took great interest in geography. On a visit to his native city Behaim built the globe. It is significant not only for its historic date but because it clearly demonstrates the tenor of geographical thinking on the eve of the discovery of America. The globe was in the tradition of Ptolemy, who had since his time, about 150 A.D., exerted greater influence on geographical thinking than any other man. According to the globe "the easternmost and westernmost lands were separated only by 120 degrees of sea." That is, the distance by sea westward from the shores of Europe to the Orient was thought by Behaim to be only half as far as the distance by land from Europe eastward along the caravan routes. Furthermore, the world was thought to be much smaller than it actually is, and innumerable islands were said to be scattered over the western ocean. But not a single scientific mind of that day in any court of the great sea powers of Europe conceived of a land mass stretching nearly from pole to pole to bar the way to the East and its riches, across a sea far more vast in breadth than Christopher Columbus or Martin Behaim imagined. When Columbus first set foot in the New World October 12, 1492 on Caicos or Wading Island in the Bahamas, he thought he had landed on an island off the east coast of Asia. Not until 1498 when he discovered the coast of South America on his third voyage, did he realize he had found a great and here- tofore unknown land. Even on his fourth venture he thought that Central America was Indochina. How far away was the reality. But by stretching his conviction almost to the point of disbelief, Columbus made the first break-through toward learning the true geography of the western seas and the lands whose shores they washed. Pilot to Columbus on his voyage of 1493-94 was Juan de la Cosa, who would also make a total of four voyages to America. On an oxhide La Cosa drew an enormous chart of the world in 1 500, not finished until 1508. The original in Madrid has been reproduced many times as one of the very earliest maps to show the New World. It includes not only those islands and lands discovered for Spain by Columbus but also those to the northward, Nova Scotia or Newfoundland, discovered by John Cabot on his two voyages of 1497 and 1498 and claimed for England. These were all thought to be unknown parts of Cathay. There were other adventurers too, following in rapid succession, who added their bits to the knowl- edge of those strange lands beyond the western ocean. Pedro Alvares Cabral, Gaspar Corte Real and Amerigo Vespucci, all in the employ of Portugal, were among those earliest men to coast along the unknown shores. Vasco Nunez de Balboa saw the Pacific in 1 5 1 3 , and seven years later Ferdinand Magellan sailed through his Strait into the South Sea and on across to the Ladrones, where he lost his life. Three results of the first circumnavigation of the globe by the survivors of Magellan's great voyage were : the linking of western Europe with eastern Asia by sailing westerly, correcting the mistake of thinking the distance was so much shorter than it actually was and establishing the fact that the Orient could be reached by sea by sailing south of the American continent and then across the Pacific. For centuries to come men were still to seek an answer to the question of whether the northern part of America was part of Asia or, if not, whether there was a passageway through it to the South Sea and on to Cathay. The huge manuscript portolan or harbor-finding chart of Juan de la Cosa was but one of numerous others drawn or published soon after the discovery of America. Early in the sixteenth century Martin Waldseemuller, a scholar of St. Die in the Vosges Mountains of Lorraine, read the letter of the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci describing his voyage of exploration in 1501-02 for Portugal. In it Vespucci recounts his supposed discovery of South America. Waldseemuller, impressed with this account, proposed in his book Cosmographiae Introductio, published in 1507, that the newly-found area be designated "America" in honor of its discoverer. With this volume Waldseemuller produced a map on which appears for the first time the name "America," applied then only to the southern continent. Even after further consideration by Waldseemuller led him to think that Vespucci should not be so honored and to delete the name from his later maps, the designation of the continent as "America" was continued. One of those who perpetuated the name was the famous cartographer of Duisburg, Gerard Mercator, who published his first map of the world at Louvain in 1538. On this double cordiform map the young Mercator, who would not produce his great world map on the "Mercator projection" for another thirty-one years, used the term "Americae pars septentrionalis" to indicate North America for the first time, differentiating it from South America. This fine rare map, which divides Asia from North America with a great body of water, shows how advanced was the thinking of Mercator. [Plate 1]. While the map makers were choosing new names for new lands, the maritime powers of Europe were continuing their search for a westward route to the Indies. Their explorers sailed time and again, gradually acquiring greater knowledge of the east coast of North America, bringing back geographical plate I. Map of the world by Mercator, 1538 TZtfe^Afqaa esfa sactQo oe ef driqinaC tjuc parp. enef ^stadorie efc^f Proves r)ecf ^Pal/e. Ynh alto pone tt/to--3 Ciurafl, que ai1orB.es o nor TKflaciimes sc creio ciaffa ila Uamaron duivtm* Tsifawseinoocaoura net /^w_ Colomao encl CoffoocCafmnxtasmneoosTiins el turn [c noma ee&ueiia (Juta, i pucJe xr a Colorado efoCro()e cyfuraflores .ipueoe ser a \fila que tncorporados en una^yvuwre eniranenel aeiw ce Laluornias. / i T T JJ— ^kfc Bj>.Vaua&&n '7.tt plate IV. Map of the world by Sir Francis Drake, Bart., 1628 H AMLRICAL SIVE QVARTAE ORBIS PARTIS NOVA ET EXACTISSlMA DESCRIPTION AE.QVINOCT[AL[»i RU. . s plate v. Map of the New World by Gutierrez, 1562 (detail) 15 plate vi. America in the world atlas by Ortelius, 1570 16 plate vii. Florida in the atlas of the New World by Wytfliet, 1597 17 :«^gg««^g^^ J*«^g<« < fe^pps -^.^^ «l?«**«»a-* ^^^g^^.JB^S.'E.^B.-g.^S.rg.^f B.JS.^-^.^.1S.S»S.S.S.Jg.S>S.S.S.S.S3S^S!! plate viii. Virginia by John White, 1585 II. Western Plantings Misconceptions like the Sea of Verrazano, which stirred in the European imagination such vivid pictures of a western passageway to the Orient, were in a measure responsible for the settlement of the North American continent. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who established the first English colony in North America, was also a great advocate of the search for the Northwest Passage. Colonies could serve as bases for further exploration. Sir Walter Raleigh, the half-brother and partner of Sir Humphrey, shared the same views and had Gilbert's royal patent for colonization renewed in his own favor. With colonies introduced to the North American scene, map making of the continent became less dependent on the information of navigators alone. Henceforth information could readily be gained by land from the colonists to be sent to the rulers, investors, geographers and cartographers of Europe. This new situation was to reduce further the possibility of geographical misconceptions. It would be a long time, however, before the vast continent would divulge even the most general facts of its geography. Raleigh's first and second Virginia colonies, both established not without significance on Roanoke Island in Pamlico Sound, did not succeed. John White, governor of the second colony, made the first drawings of actual Indian life on the continent and another of his drawings shows the "arriual of the Englishemen." The map "Americae pars, Nunc Virginia dicta . . ." is the first separate map of Virginia and was engraved and published by Theodore de Bry in his Great Voyages, Frankfurt 1590. [Plate vin]. With the successful establishment at Jamestown of a permanent colony "New Virginia" in 1607, exploration of the lands and rivers of the surrounding area was carried out by that great adventurer Captain John Smith, who spent the first two years there. The resulting map of "Virginia" appeared in 161 2 in Smith's A Map of Virginia and in his General! Historie of Virginia in 1624. For sixty years it was the standard map of the Chesapeake Bay area. [Plate ix]. One of the earliest callers in Chesapeake Bay was Henry Hudson, at the time attempting to find a sea route to the Orient. On his third voyage, in 1609, after failing to find a northeast passage, he sailed to America. Entering the Chesapeake, the Delaware and New York Bays, he then sailed up the river later given his name to a point beyond the present Albany. Without meeting success in the west, Hudson bent his efforts on his fourth and fatal voyage toward finding a northwest passage. He explored in 1610-11 the strait and the vast body of water called Hudson Bay, which for a time was thought to be the South Sea or at least to lead to it. The account of Hudson's voyages was included in Descriptio ac delineatio Geo- graphica Detectionis Freti . . . , edited and published in Amsterdam in 1612 by Hessel Gerritsz, hydrographer of the Dutch East India Company. With the account, one of several accounts of discovery in the volume, was the Tabvla Navtica, first map showing Hudson Bay. Between the two areas explored by Hudson, in New York and in northern Canada, Samuel de Champlain was following in the path of Jacques Cartier who had discovered the St. Lawrence River in 1534. Champlain was bent on exploring, trading and colonizing. He founded St. Croix and Port Royal, 19 now Annapolis, Nova Scotia, the first permanent French colony in North America. He later mapped the New England coast while hunting suitable sites for other settlements. In the last year of his three-year sojourn, he drew in his own hand a map of the coast from Cape Sable to Cape Cod, the first time this coastline was drawn. He labelled the fine manuscript "Descripsion des costs, pts, rades, illes de la Nowele France . . . 1607," a year before he founded Quebec. The tireless activity of Champlain and his associates set the pace for the great achievements of the French in exploring Canada and the Mississippi valley during the next century and a half. [Plate x]. The French in the north and the English in the south were not the only Europeans busy establishing colonies. Only a few years after Hudson sailed up the river later named for him, trading posts were estab- lished by the Dutch at Fort Nassau and at New Amsterdam on the Hudson or North River. Both Swedes and Dutch set up trading posts on both sides of the Delaware or South River. New Netherland was be- coming a settled and prosperous colonial possession. New Amsterdam was the center of the life of the colony, and in 1639 the earliest known survey was made of Manhattan Island. At the same time a map of Southern New Jersey and the Delaware River was made by the same author. Neither of these has survived, but copies were made of each about thirty years later. They were marked "Manatus gelegen op de Noot Riuier" and "Caerte van de Svydt Rivier in Niew-Nederland." These manuscript maps are among the few showing graphically the extent of individual holdings in those two areas. Joannes Vingboons, cartographer of the Dutch West India Company, may have been the author. [Plates xi, xii]. Far to the south and west, from Florida to California, were the vast holdings of Spain in North America, as shown in the map by Gabriel Tatton dated 1616, "Nova et rece Terraum et regnorum Californiae, ..." "Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova" is a map of the area from Penobscot Bay south to Chesapeake Bay by W.J. Blaeu in 1635, issued as a separate map identical with that included in an atlas of that year. It is the prototype of a map of New Netherland and New England by Nicolas J. Visscher, member of the family of great Dutch cartographers. Here for the first time appear the Indian canoes, the bears, beavers and turkeys that decorated maps of this region for decades, including the Visscher map "Novi Belgii Novaeque Angliae. . . ," showing the area about 1647-51. This has an especially fine view of "Nieuw Amsterdam op t' Eylant Manhattans," which also characterizes the Visscher series. [Plate xin]. Dutch and Swedish authority along the two rivers was eventually ended when the English claimed their right to the territory, based on the voyage of discovery of Cabot in 1498 and on more recent grounds. They sought to build a strong colonial empire. The matter was settled in 1664 when the English acquired New Netherland and established the provinces of New York and New Jersey. With the exception of a six-month period in 1673-74 tne area remained under English jurisdiction until the American Revolution won independence for all the thirteen colonies south of Canada. Immediately after New Netherland was lost to the English, a chart and map maker of Amsterdam named Pieter Goos published his sea atlas in 1666 : De Zee-Atlas ofte Water-Werld . . . Among the numerous 20 VjR^INIAN plate ix. Virginia by John Smith, 1606 21 plate x. Manuscript map of New England coast by Champlain, 1607 22 charts was one, "Paskaerte van de Zudyt en Noordt Revier in Nieu Nederlant," for the use of Dutch navigators along the coasts of the colony so recently lost. It is natural that each colony or province would soon have its separate map. One such was "A Mapp of Newjarsey" by John Seller, the royal hydrographer, which appeared in London in his Atlas Maritimus, published in 1675. The state of the map which includes the coat of arms of Sir George Carteret came out in 1676. It depicts New Jersey as it was in 1664, and there is possibility that it was first published separately that year after the English took New Amsterdam. This is the first map of the province to use the term "Newjarsey" and the earliest English map to include a view of New York (the Visscher view). This is so far as known the earliest view bearing the name "New York." [Plate xiv]. Up to this period all maps of North America had been published in Europe. In 1677 the first ex- ception was made. Accounts of the many and varied difficulties of the new settlers in establishing them- selves in their communities along the coast were usually accompanied by maps. One such account was A Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England . . . , by the Rev. William Hubbard of Ipswich. The book was published in 1677 by John Foster, Harvard graduate, Boston's first printer and the first wood engraver in the English colonies. The "Map of New-England, Being the first that ever was here cut ..." was the first woodcut map engraved and printed in America. Shown are the "White Hills," which appear in the copy made for the later London edition of the book as the "Wine Hills." [Plate xv]. One map of this period was thought for a time to be the earliest engraving from copper made in this country. It is certain, however, that the map was engraved in London between 1686 and 1688. This is the rare "Mapp of Rariton River" and its tributaries in New Jersey, made by John Reid in 1686, which is similar to the surveys of New Amsterdam and southern New Jersey of 1639. It shows the extent of settlement of the province of East Jersey in the area. Reid and his family had only recently arrived from Scotland and lived for some time at Amboy. In return for making the survey he was awarded a tract known as "Hortensia" on the Hope River, Monmouth County. Many decades would pass before the colonies could depend upon themselves for their needs in maps, charts and atlases. Another early engraved map of New Jersey was one made by John Worlidge of Salem in the Province of West Jersey. Worlidge appeared as one of the signers of the Concessions and Agreements of March 3, 1677, was president of a court trying an especially gruesome murder in 1692, signed an agreement as a member of the provincial council to uphold the authority of King William in 1697, and died in 1698, leaving among other effects four maps worth ten shillings. "A New Mapp East and West Newjarsey; Being an exact Survey taken by Mr. John Worlidge" was engraved in London and published by John Thornton late in the seventeenth century. Although it shows both Jerseys, it is more exact for the West Jersey Worlidge knew so well. In the second half of the seventeenth century the French, opening up the farther continental interior for trading, for proselytizing and exploring, sent out brilliant explorers. One such was Robert de la Salle, who discovered the Ohio River in 1669. In 1673 the Jesuit Fr. Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet dis- covered the great river they named Colbert and which we call the Mississippi, following it south to the 23 junction with the Arkansas. La Salle followed them to the Mississippi by way of the Illinois and made the entire journey to the mouth of the great stream in 1681-82. There he took possession of the land in the name of Louis XIV, naming it "Louisiana" in honor of his sovereign. In this lower Mississippi region, which he firmly believed should be controlled by France, he was assassinated in 1687. The great discoveries of La Salle incidentally proved that there could be no passage to the Pacific from the vast basin of the Mississippi. If there was a passage, it must be sought in the northern reaches of Canada or even north of the entire continent. In this age of Louis XIV map making in France was taking a preeminent place in Europe. The greatest of the Dutch cartographers lived in the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth centuries, when The Netherlands was one of the great powers. Now France was becoming a centre of the arts and sciences. One result of this upsurge of French culture was the fine quality and great beauty of maps pro- duced there. As in The Netherlands, map makers often established their sons and their sons-in-law in the business, which would be carried on often by members of one family for several generations. First of the French map makers of that day was Nicolas Sanson, who was followed by his sons and a grandson. In Paris in 1658 he published an atlas Cartes generates de tovtes les parties dv monde . . . and gave lessons in geography to both Louis XIII and Louis XIV. [Plate xvi]. Upon his death, his two sons Adrien and Guillaume continued as geographers to the king. Contemporary with these younger Sansons was Guillaume Delisle, who also produced an atlas at Paris between 1700 and 171 2 showing the high quality and beauty which French maps maintained for over a century until the late eighteenth century. [Plate xvn]. An English map of North America of the last decade of the seventeenth century is noteworthy. It was dedicated to the son of Queen Anne, William, Duke of Gloucester, who was taken ill during the celebration of his eleventh birthday anniversary in 1700 and died a few days later. Only a year earlier the main street of Williamsburg, capital of Virginia, had been named in honor of the young duke. The map, apparently from Oxford University, has a curious simplicity such as one could imagine would appeal to a boy. [Plate xvm]. It was John Seller, map maker and nautical instrument maker previously mentioned, who began a publication in 1671 that was to continue throughout the eighteenth century. This was The English Pilot, a collection of charts and sailing directions for the English mariner. The Fourth Book of the Pilot appeared first in 1689 when published by John Thornton, London cartographer, and appeared quite regularly until 1794, becoming "in time the American colonial navigator's bible . . . which undoubtedly graced the cabin of many an early craft ..." [Plate xix]. Early in the eighteenth century maps of the colonies on special subjects made their appearance. One such was a map of postal routes in the English colonies, giving the schedules in detail for the supposedly exact departures and arrivals at principal cities. The publisher was Hermann Moll who had come to London from Holland in 1688 and produced maps for years, giving on their faces great geographical details. Another example of maps for special purposes was a set of three contained in a volume A Bill in the 24 Ai A N A T V S Gclegen op de ;Noot TUuier >***' oort y?u-wr oLr£ -** M '/.■*L' r i.-fi't* j f,r, , !&„*? tun JTmj} AW ijW fur £« £-w.*r r&S-m» Fa. St* ,,-r*-*-- 6fiZ~i*$ K-*r * « If* £< y-rAT^i. plate xi. Manuscript survey of Manhattan attributed to J. Vingboons, 1639 25 26 plate xii. Manuscript chart of the Delaware River attributed to J. Vingboons, 1639 Chancery of New-Jersey, at the Suit of John Earl of Stair, and others, . . . Against . . . Persons of Elizabeth-Town, . . . the Clinker Lot Right Men. This suit, better known as the "Elizabeth-Town Bill in Chancery," con- cerning an involved land title, was never adjudicated, even after years of litigation and delay. Printer of the book in 1747 was James Parker of New York, for sale by subscription, with a few extra copies to be sold by Parker and by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. The maps were engraved by James Turner of Boston. One especially is interesting because it shows the routes by road and water between Philadelphia and New York and the Indian path from Navesink on the Shrewsbury River to the island village of Minisink on the upper Delaware River. As the various colonies developed and population expanded into the interior, the need arose for more accurate maps. A number appeared in mid-eighteenth century. In Virginia, the oldest English colony, the need for a map better than any available resulted in a fine one which first appeared in London about 1754. In its later states it was entitled "A Map of the most Inhabited part of Virginia containing the whole Province of Maryland with part of Pensilvania, New Jersey and North Carolina. Drawn by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson." [Plate xx]. It was the basis of another map some years later by Thomas Jefferson, who readily acknowledged his debt to his father. In 1755 a small map of "North America from the French of Mr. D'Anville, Improved with the Back Settlements of Virginia and the Course of Ohio ..." was published in London by Thomas Jefferys. Geographer to the Prince of Wales, who five years later became George III, Jefferys sold maps and atlases from his shop in St. Martin's Lane, Charing Cross. Jean Baptiste d'Anville, one of the best known of the French geographers of his time, although particularly interested in classical geography, did work in modern geography as well. The "Geographical and Historical Remarks" on this map could never be attributed, however, to any Frenchman. Another map which appeared in 1755, great in importance and in scale, was "A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America, with the Roads, Distances, Limits and Extent of the Settle- ments. . . ." Its publication in London, on the eve of the French and Indian War in America, was timely for serving military purposes in the English colonies. The author of this map was the versatile John Mitchell who had lived in Virginia for some years before producing his chief work. The map's most important use came years later in the negotiations and final signing at Paris of the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, ending the War of the American Revolution. [Plate xxiv]. A third map was published that year. Lewis Evans finished in Philadelphia work on "A general Map of the Middle British Colonies, in America," just a year before his death. First printed by Benjamin Franklin and David Hall, this fine American map was reprinted many times by others. [Plate xxi]. Like soldiers before and since, two serving His Britannic Majesty in the French and Indian War had a love of souvenirs. One of them decorated his powder horn with an engraved map of the St. Lawrence River and views of Montreal and Quebec, which finally fell with all of New France. The other saw action in Cuba and included in his scrimshaw a view of Havana along with one of New York City and a map of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers and Lakes George and Champlain. 27 Only a decade after the outbreak of the French and Indian War one of a number of portents fore- shadowed the far greater American Revolution. In 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act, and another decade later a skirmish at Lexington ended peace in the English colonies. As with all wars this one created among the belligerents a demand for maps and charts to use in land and sea operations and presented op- portunity as well for bringing out up-to-date maps for the general public. In 1777 William Faden, London map maker, published his North American Atlas, including "The Province of New Jersey, Divided into East and West, commonly called The Jerseys." This first edition was based on a survey of 1769, made in connection with the disputed boundary between New York and New Jersey. A second edition came out the following year with marked changes in road routes and town locations "from several Military Surveys generously Communicated by Officers of the British Troops and of the Regiments of Hesse and Anspach." [Plate xxn]. In the Articles of Confederation the Congress late in 1777 had agreed upon "The United States of America" as the designation of the new American country fighting for her freedom. Early in 1778 the great alliance with France was concluded. As if to celebrate the event a "Carte duTheatre dela Guerre . . . ," signed by "J. B. Eliot, Ingenieur des Etats-Unis" was published in Paris. This was the first time, so far as is known, that the designation for the new country was used on any map. Two years later a French fleet sailed into the waters of Newport, Rhode Island, bringing a French army of 6000, commanded by lieutenant general the Comte de Rochambeau, to add to American forces on land and sea. In 1781 the army of Washington and Rochambeau marched south to join allied military and naval forces in Virginia. An aide on the staff of Rochambeau was a twenty-eight-year-old officer named Louis-Alexandre Berthier who performed a magnificent service in recording superbly the route of each day's march and making a diagram of each night's encampment. The pages of the notebooks of Berthier, who was to become major general of the Grande Armee and a marshal of France under Napoleon, graphically record the road to victory at Yorktown. [Plate xxm]. But the war was not yet over. When peace negotiations were begun they proved delicate and pro- longed. John Mitchell's map played a major role in the treatment of boundaries. At last the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States was signed on September 3, 1783. 28 plate xin. New Netherland and New England by Nicolas J. Visscher, 1656 29 plate xiv. New Jersey by John Seller, 1675 30 plate xv. New England by John Foster, 1677. The "White Hills map. 31 O L F D E T,„ P , cq „« .1., C x; S u. j'. u . jc T.„ f ,c H „. j„ en.,,.- N o *r 'tI ACIFICQUE. Mexico ue EoS/- P A G N E plate xvi. New Mexico and Florida in world atlas by Nicolas Sanson, 1658 32 ijluini S u i) ,„. A \ v. ii Pa ( i f i en ' k plate xvil. North America in the world atlas by Guillaume Delisle, 1700 33 plate xviii. North America, about 1699 34 plate xix. Chart of New England from The English Pilot. The Fourth Book. 1706 35 plate xx. Virginia by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, 1755 (detail) 36 plate xxi. The middle British colonies by Lewis Evans, 1758 37 plate xxn. New Jersey by William Faden, 1778 38 A % ^ tf ^ "c/ C?ctjne cfai>.< fa nliiGjrrtmde vroionapw pevi avoir r/i'ux pit'crs eniemi Chateau plate xxiii. Manuscript map of ford made by the French army by Louis-Alexandre Berthier, 1781 39 ■tf— -~^— - J? — i— Zi 4 — >•■ / i J ... i — Li— plate xxiv. British and French dominions in North America by John Mitchell, 1755 (detail) 40 III. "The present juvenile state of the Country" IN the Connecticut Journal of March 31, 1784, only six months after peace had come, Abel Buell ad- vertised his "New and correct Map of the United States of North America . . . agreeable to the Peace of 1783 Humbly Inscribed to his Excellency the Governor and Company of the State of Connecticut By their Most Obedient and very humble Servant Abel Buell Newhaven ..." This wall map was pro- duced by a restless, unstable, inventive genius whose diverse activities ranged from making "the first types known to have been cut and cast in English America" to inventing a machine for grinding and polishing precious stones, working as silversmith and engraver, owning and operating privateers, to altering currency of the colony from two shillings six pence to thirty shillings. Buell referred to his map as "the first ever compiled, engraved, and finished by one man, and an American." Based in part on the fine Mitchell map used in the peace negotiations, Buell's map does have the distinction of being the first map of the United States made in the United States. It was also "published according to Act of Assembly" and "is one of the very earliest claims to copyright to be printed in or upon an issue of the press of the United States." Of considerable rarity, the map is interesting especially for its cartouche capped with an American flag. [Plate xxv]. The year that the first Congress of the new republic met at New York another inventive genius in that city began the publication of a series of road maps under the title A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America. The compiler was Christopher Colles, born in Dublin of English ancestry, who had come to America in 1771. Among his many and varied activities he planned inland waterways such as an elevated canal across New Jersey. Colles was engaged at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in installing a fresh water supply system for New York City, from which he fled before the British occupation. The group of eighty-three strip maps shows a series of routes from Albany, New York and Stratford, Connecticut through New York, Philadelphia and Annapolis to Williamsburg and Yorktown. Mileage and local names, some houses, churches and other features are given. Each subscriber paid "one quarter dollar at the time of subscribing . . . and one eighth of a dollar upon delivery of every six pages of the work. ..." Like many of the enterprises of Colles, these prototypes of American road maps were not successful, in part perhaps because more of populous New England was not mapped. [Plate xxvi]. Only part of the actual surveying was done by Christopher Colles, during and soon after the Revolu- tion. For the rest, more than half, he depended on the use of the maps of Robert Erskine and Simeon DeWitt, to which he gained access after the war. He finished the map book in 1791 or 1792. Like Abel Buell, Christopher Colles died penniless at age seventy-nine and was buried by his two friends, John Pintard and Dr. John Francis, in St. Paul's churchyard. Even during the conflict between Great Britain and her American colonies, the exploration of the continent continued. Captain James Cook of the Royal Navy, who had already made two brilliant voy- ages in the Pacific, sailed from Plymouth, England on his last expedition, on July 12, 1776, eight days after the Declaration of Independence. The Admiralty was reviving the search for a Northwest Passage, which 41 had been abandoned more than a century earlier, and Captain Cook volunteered for the duty "to find out a Northern Passage by sea from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean." His ships, Resolution and Discovery, sailed to the Cape of Good Hope, on to Tasmania and Tahiti, and then northward to rediscover the Hawaiian Islands, which had been known to Spain over two centuries earlier. Cook, who first saw these islands in the same month the Americans signed a treaty of alliance with France, named them the Sandwich Islands in honor of the First Lord of the Admiralty, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, for whom, as we all know, the sandwich is also named. Cook continued on to the Pacific coast, Drake's New Albion, searching for a strait and charting the coastline from 44 55' N to 70 44' N, along 3000 miles until stopped by "a continent of ice," having passed through Bering Strait to examine both the American and Siberian coasts. When he returned to Hawaii to refit one year after discovering the islands, James Cook was killed by the Hawaiians on the shore of Kealakekua Bay when trying to retrieve a stolen ship's boat. His were "the first scientific voyages of discovery." Several years earlier another Englishman, who had been in the Royal Navy also but had left it to become a factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, contributed his share in solving the mystery of a North- west Passage. Samuel Hearne was ordered to investigate Indian reports of copper mines to the northwest and to see if there was any passage through the continent from Hudson Bay. He left Fort Prince of Wales on the Churchill River, which flows into the bay from the west, and traveled northwesterly, coming into a valley rich in copper and following its stream to the mouth. This river which flows into the Arctic Ocean was named the Coppermine River. By traversing the country between the Churchill and the Coppermine, Hearne had proved there could be no passage out of Hudson Bay. Another great contribution to the advancement of geographical knowledge of the continent was made in that same period by Alexander Mackenzie, a young Scot who had been for several years a fur trader at Fort Chippewyan on the Great Slave Lake. From his post in 1789 he traveled the entire length of the river, later given his name, to its mouth on the Arctic Ocean far to the west of the Coppermine. From Lake Athabasca in 1792-93 Mackenzie set out to reach the Pacific Ocean, which he did by traveling up the Peace River, crossing the Continental Divide and sailing down the Fraser River to its mouth. This is credited as the first overland journey to the Pacific by a European. He too found no trace of the North- west Passage. His Voyages from Montreal . . . to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans . . . and John Barrow's A Chronological History of Voyages . . . record both Hearne's and Mackenzie's routes. Hearne and Mackenzie had made their expeditions along the inland waterways of the wild country emptying into the Arctic and the North Pacific Oceans. Now a scientific exploration of the west coast, continuing the work of Captain Cook, was made by a man who had sailed with Cook on his last two expeditions. George Vancouver, in the Royal Navy since he was thirteen, was ordered to explore the western coast for a passage through to the Great Lakes. From his base on the Sandwich Islands he made three voyages to the coast, surveying it from 35 N to 6i° N in 1792-94. Vancouver learned there was no hope of finding a passage in that area. The account of his explorations is in his Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacifc Ocean . . . , published in London in 1798. Exploration had proved there was no North- 42 plate xxv. The United States of North America by Abel Buell, 1784 43 J?om JfevTorA (tff) to J>fc/adrf/i/t/a plate xxvi. Road map from Holmes's to Philadelphia from A Survey of the Roads ... by Christopher Colles, 1789-91/2. 44 west Passage through the continent. It could only be found in the arctic regions beyond the mainland. The final solution came as a result of the tragic loss of Sir John Franklin's expedition of 1845-48 when every man perished. Robert McClure, in command of one of the vessels searching for Franklin, was the first to complete a voyage through the tortuous Northwest Passage— in three ships and across Banks Strait by sledge in the year 1852. Not until 1903-06 did any man make a continuous navigation, when Roald Amundsen, the great Arctic explorer, accomplished the feat in Gjoa, a motor herring boat, which men had sought for centuries to accomplish. Although by the year 1800 it had been determined that the interior of the continent had no passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, there was much more to be learned of its vast plains, mountain ranges, rivers and lakes. Numerous expeditions were commissioned to explore the lands stretching endlessly to the westward but none was more famous than that of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. In 1803 President Jefferson urged Congress to authorize the exploration of the valley of the Missouri and set up trade with the Indians of the area which was being purchased by the United States. At that time secretary to Jefferson and neighbor at Charlottesville was Meriwether Lewis ; it was he who was chosen to command the expedition to ascend the Missouri to its source and then cross the Rockies to the Pacific. Lewis chose as partner his old army friend Lieutenant William Clark. The party of army men, after being trained near St. Louis, began their long journey May 14, 1804 to return only on September 23, 1806. They sailed up the river to its forks, then up the Jefferson River to its source. There, in present-day Montana, they rode horseback across the Rocky Mountains to a tribu- tary of the Columbia. They reached the river's mouth in November 1805 and wintered on the coast. The return was made by two routes : Clark's party explored the Yellowstone, and the re-united parties completed the trip together. Their navigation of the Columbia River concluded the story begun when Captain Robert Gray of Boston sailed into it in 1792 and named the river after his ship Columbia. This classic of American exploration is recorded in William Clark's maps of the western United States. While men were probing the continent in unknown quarters, others at home were seeking its devel- opment in a variety of ways. Most often these new developments were dependent on the land and its use, and maps were needed to supply a market in the country then in its "present juvenile state," to quote Washington. Map makers by the score would soon produce and sell their maps in the cities. The govern- ments, Federal and state, would begin mapping their lands. The Federal government began mapping operations soon after it came into existence. Thomas Hutchins, born in New Jersey, who had been an officer in the British Army stationed in the American colonies, had considerable experience in surveying and map making from his years in the service. A topographical description of several colonies had appeared in London during the American Revolution. As early as 1781 Hutchins, then back in America, had been appointed Geographer to the [Southern] Continental Army and then Geographer to the United States in 1785 when he began the establishment of a government mapping service. He started the Public Land Survey and with his assistant, William McMurray, began a great map of the entire country. 45 In 1789, the year Colles issued his first road map, William Blodgct issued his "Topographical Map of the State of Vermont from actual Survey." One of the very first state maps, it was engraved by Amos Doolittle at New Haven. Unfortunately the arrangements under which this map was produced were not to everyone's satisfaction, and only seven years later a "Correct Map" was compiled and copyrighted. Modern atlases were in demand. John Reid, a publisher of New York, issued his American Atlas in 1796, the first atlas engraved and published in the United States containing only maps of America. A Philadelphia book publisher had the distinction of putting out the first world atlas engraved and published in the United States. He was Mathew Carey, and the volume was the book of maps to accompany the American edition of Guthrie 's Geography improved, appearing in 1795. Philadelphia was also the city in which John Melish had his firm. He had come from his native Scotland and after traveling extensively in America he settled there. His two-volume Travels in the United States was published in 18 12 with maps drawn by Melish himself. Soon thereafter he issued his first "Map of the United States" which he accompanied with a pamphlet entitled A Geographical Descrip- tion . . . , listing the sources of his information. He was studious and meticulous, never printing more than one hundred maps at a time so he could revise his plates from the latest information. More than twenty editions of his large map have been noted. That one, "Improved to the 1st of jan. 1818," was referred to in the Adams-Onis Treaty with Spain of 1819. Melish, known as "one of the first professional geog- raphers of the United States," set a high standard for commercial map makers to follow. At times Melish employed as an engraver a man named Henry Schenck Tanner, who "inherited Melish's role as leading map publisher, of the period, in Philadelphia and the United States" when Melish died in 1822. Tanner also adopted the practice of listing his sources. He "shares credit with Melish, both as associate and competitor, for establishing commercial map publishing in the United States." Maps and atlases were soon joined by globes as commercial products. In Bradford, Vermont, a farmer named James Wilson began making globes about 1810. He was largely self-taught although he had been instructed a bit in engraving by Amos Doolittle. During the War of 18 12 he set up a shop in the town to sell his "perfected globe." Soon he moved to Albany where he continued the business with his sons and associates for many years. Wilson was the first American globe maker and a fine one. By those early decades of the nineteenth century all the elements of map making in North America had been established. Maps and charts, globes and atlases have pointed the way in the development of the continent since the beginning. With ever-increasing uses being found for them in our complex existence, they will serve man even better in the future and, perhaps equally as important, will give him even greater pleasure. 46 Check List of An Exhibition: early maps of north America December 12, 1961 -January 20, 1962 at The New Jersey Historical Society 1. The eastern and western hemispheres of the "Nuremberg Globe." By Martin Behaim, 1492. Two prints lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. 2. Portolan chart of the world. By Juan de la Cosa, 1500-08. Facsimile lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. 3. Map of the world. By Martin Waldseemiiller, 1507. Fac- simile lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. 4. Double cordiform map of the world. By Gerard Merca- tor, 1538. Lent by the American Geographical Society. Plate 1. 5. Map of North America and the Arctic. By Michael Lok, in Richard Hakluyt's Diners voyages, 1582. Facsimile lent by the Newark Public Library. 6. Chart of the Gulf of California. By Domingo del Castillo, 1 541 . In Hernando Cortes' Historia de Nueva-Espana, 1770. Lent by the Library of Congress, Rare Book Division. Plate 11. 7. The North part of America ... By Henry Briggs, in Samuel Purchas' Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pil- grimes, 1625. Lent by the Library of Congress, Rare Book Division. Plate in. 8. A New and accurate Mappe of the World ... In Sir Francis Drake's The World Encompassed, 1628. Lent by Boies Penrose. Plate iv. 9. Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis et Exactissima De- scriptio. By Diego Gutierrez, 1 562. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. Plate v. 10. Americae Sive Novi Orbis, Nova Descriptio. In Theatrum Orbis Terrarutn by Abraham Ortelius, 1570. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. Plate vi. 11. Florida et Apalche. In Descriptions Ptolemaicae Avgmentum by Corneille Wytfliet, 1597. Lent by the Library of Con- gress, Map Division. Plate vn. 12. Map of North and South America. In Atlas Maior, sive Cosmographia Blaviana, . . . by Johannes Blaeu, 1662. Lent by Princeton University Library. 13. The arriual of the Englishemen in Virginia. A print by Theodore de Bry in his Grands Voyages, 1590. Lent by the Library of Congress, Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection. 14. Americae pars, Nunc Virginia dicta . . . Like No. 13, after a drawing by John White, 1585, and published with Thomas Hariot's A Briefe and true report of the Newfound land of Virginia in Theodore de Bry's Great Voyages, 1 590. Lent by the Library of Congress, Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection. Plate vm. From the Collection of The New Jersey Historical Society. 15. Virginia. Discouered and discribed by Captayn John Smith. 1606. In Smith's A Map of Virginia, 1612 and in this case from his Generall Historie of Virginia, 1624. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. Plate IX. 16. Tab via Navtica . . . accompanies the account of his voy- ages by Henry Hudson in Descriptio ac delineatio Geo- graphica Detectionis Freti . . . , edited by Hessel Gerritsz, 1612. Lent by the Library of Congress, Rare Book Divi- sion. 17. Descripsion des costs . . . de la Novvele France . . . 1607. Manuscript map by Samuel de Champlain. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. Plate x. 18. Manatus gelegen op de Noot Riuier. 1639. Attributed to Johannes Vingboons. Manuscript copy of about 1665-70. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. Plate xi. 19. Caerte van de Svydt Rivier in Niew-Nederland. Same as No. 18. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. Plate xii. 20. Nova et rece Terraum et regnorum Californiae . . . By Gabriel Tatton, 1616. Lent by Thomas W. Streeter. 21. Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova. By W. J. and J. Blaeu, 1635-* 22. Novi Belgii Novaeque Angliae . . . By Nicolas Joannis Visscher, 1656. Plate xm.* 23 . Paskaerte van de Zuydt en Noordt Revier in Nieu Neder- lant . . . By Pieter Goos, 1666. Lent by Princeton Uni- versity Library. 24. A Mapp of New Jarsey. In /If /as Maritimus by John Seller, 1675. Plate xiv.* 25. A Map of New-England, Being the first that ever was here cut . . . By John Foster, in William Hubbard's A Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England . . . , 1677. Lent by Princeton University Library, Sinclair Hamilton Collection No. 2. Facsimile of the map lent by the New York Public Library, Rare Book Division. Plate xv. 26. A Mapp of Rariton River . . . with the Plantations there- upon . . . By John Reid, about 1686-88.* 27. A New Mapp East and West New Jarsey ... By John Worlidge, late 17th century. Lent by Rutgers University Library, Special Collections. 28. Le Nouveau Mexique, et La Floride . . . 1656. In Cartes generalcs de tovtes les parties dv monde ... by Nicolas San- son, 1658. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. Plate xvi. 29. L'Amerique Septentrionale . . . 1700. In Atlas de Geo- graphic by Guillaume Delisle, 1700-12. Lent by the 47 Library of Congress, Map Division. Plate xvn. 30. Map of North America. From Novus Atlas, Sivc Thcatruni Orbis Terrarum . . . by Jansjansson, 1658. Lent by Prince- ton University Library. 31. A New Map of North America Shewing its Principal Di- visions . . . Dedicated To His Highness William Duke of Glocester. About 1699. Lent by Lawrence T. Clark. Plate XVIII. 32. A Large Draught of New England New York And Long Island . . . By John Thornton . . . From The English Pilot. The Fourth Book. 1706. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. Plate xix. 33. New England, New York, New Jersey and Pensilvania. By Hermann Moll, 1729. Lent by Dr. Peter J. Guthorn. 34. A map of northern New Jersey. Engraved by James Tur- ner, from A Bill in the Chancery of New-Jersey, at the Suit of John Earl of Stair and others . . . published by James Parker, 1747- 35. A Map of the most Inhabited part of Virginia . . . with the roads added to 1 75 5 . By Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, 1755. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. Plate xx. 36. North America from the French of Mr. D'Anville . . . By Thomas Jefferys, 1755.* 37. A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America . . . By John Mitchell, 1755. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. Plate xxiv. 38. A general Map of the Middle British Colonies in America . . . By Lewis Evans, with the Addition of the Line of Forts on the Back Settlements By Thos. Jefferys . . ." 1758. Plate xxi.* 39. Powder horn with engraved map of the St. Lawrence River, about 1758. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. 40. Powder horn with engraved map of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain, about 1763. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. 41. The Province of New Jersey, Divided into East and West, commonly called The Jerseys. In North American Atlas by William Faden, second edition, 1778. Plate xxil.* 42. Carte du Theatre de la Guerre actuel entre les Anglais et les Treize Colonies Unies . . . By J. B. Eliot, "Ingenieur des Etats-Unis," 1778. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. 43. Manuscript road map of the route of the French army from Princeton to Trenton, September 1, 1 781. By Louis- Alexandre Berthier. Lent by Princeton University Li- brary, Berthier Papers No. 16 (2). 44. Manuscript map of Trenton, New Jersey, showing the encampment of the French army, September 1, 1781. By Louis-Alexandre Berthier. Lent by Princeton University Library, Berthier Papers No. 21 (25). 45. Manuscript map of the ford of the Delaware River at Trenton taken by the French army on the way to York- town. By Louis- Alexandre Berthier, 1 78 1 . Lent by Prince- ton University Library, Berthier Papers No. 17. Plate xxm. 46. A New and correct Map of the United States of North America Layd down from the Latest Observations and best Authorities agreeable to the Peace of 1783 ... By Abel Buell, 1784. Plate xxv.* 47. Road map from Holmes's to Philadelphia. In A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America, published in sheets by Christopher Colles, 1789-91/2. Lent by the New-York Historical Society. Plate xxvi. 48. Proposal of a Design for the Promotion of the Interests of the United States of America . . . by Means of Inland Navigable Communication by Christopher Colles, 1808. Lent by the Library of Congress, Rare Book Division. 49. A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, Undertaken by the Command of His Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere . . . , by James Cook and James King, 1785. Lent by Princeton University Library. 50. I'oyages from Montreal . . . to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 1789 and 1793, by Alexander Mackenzie, 1801. Lent by the Library of Congress, Rare Book Division. Si. A Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions, by John Barrow, 181 8. Lent by the Library of Congress. 52. Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World . . . , by George Vancouver. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. 53. Detail map made on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-06. By William Clark. Lent by Yale University Library, William Robertson Coe Collection. 54. Topographical Map of the State of Vermont from actual Survey. By William Blodget, 1789. Photostat of original in the Massachusetts Historical Society, lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. 55. The State of Massachusetts from the best Information. In The American Atlas by John Reid, 1796.* 56. The State of New Jersey Compiled from the most Au- thentic Information, by Samuel Lewis. From Carey's American edition of Guthrie's Geography improved by Mathew Carey, 1795.* 57. Map of the United States with the contiguous British and Spanish Possessions . . . Improved to the 1st of Jan. 1818. By John Melish. Lent by Thomas W. Streeter. 58. Travels Through the United States of America in the years 1806 and 1807, 1809, 1810, & 1811 .. . with corrections . . . to 1815 . . . , by John Melish, 1815.* 59. Three-inch terrestrial globe. By James Wilson, about 1825. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. 60. United States of America. By Henry S. Tanner, 1834. Lent by the Library of Congress, Map Division. 48 S URBANA S MAPS OF NORTH AMERICA NEWARK