A Chart of the North West Coast of America and North East Coast of Asia, Explored in the Year 1778 & 1779

This finely colored copperplate engraving charts a monumental chapter in Pacific maritime exploration, documenting Captain James Cook’s final voyage in search of the Northwest Passage. Published in London by Alexander Hogg for A New, Authentic, and Complete Collection of Voyages Round the World, the map tracks the tracks of the Resolution and Discovery through the Bering Strait during 1778 and 1779 before an impenetrable wall of ice forced them back. On the Asian side, the detailed coastlines of the Chukchi Peninsula give way to inland regions explicitly credited to “a M.S. Chart received from the Russians.” Crucially for contemporary viewers, the right side of the map extends east to feature the western portion of Hudson’s Bay—the highly anticipated, hopeful terminus that British mariners desperately wished would connect directly to these Pacific waters.