An Authentic Plan of the River St. Laurence from Sillery to the Falls of Montmorency

A contemporary plan of the British Siege of Quebec during the French and Indian War.

This attractive map of the St. Lawrence River around Quebec captures the British siege of the French city during the Seven Years’ War, known in its North American theater as the French and Indian War. An impressive naval presence fills the river, with the ships of Admiral Holmes’s division individually named, while the surrounding landscape provides a basic overview of the French and British military dispositions around Quebec. French positions along the northern shoreline are flanked by British forces on either side, including General Wolfe’s camp to the east. Fortifications, settlements, roads, and other features of the surrounding countryside are also identified.

The map was engraved by John Gibson and published in London in 1759 as part of the Gentleman’s Magazine, one of the era’s influential mass-market periodicals. Issued during the climactic campaign that culminated in the British victory at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the capture of Quebec, it provides a contemporary view of the military and naval operations surrounding the city.