Bowles’s New One-Sheet Map of the Independent States of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pensylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut & Rhode Island. &c

A foundational map in the cartographic history of early America.

This significant late 18th-century map represents a fascinating evolution of one of the most important cartographic milestones in American history: Lewis Evans’s 1755 General Map of the Middle British Colonies. Reissued in London around 1797 by the firm of Bowles & Carver, this edition captures the newly independent United States during the formative years of the early Republic, updating a colonial-era masterpiece to reflect the post-Revolutionary political landscape.

Various states, including the newly admitted Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, along with the Western Territories and adjacent British Canada, are vibrantly shaded with hand-color. Fort St. Vincent (modern-day Vincennes, IN) represents the westernmost major settlement on the primary plate, while a sparse inset extends the geography to show the remainder of the Ohio Country and its terminus at the Mississippi River.

Dozens of carefully engraved toponyms identify a fascinating variety of frontier fortifications, Native American villages, and geographic landmarks. Furthermore, descriptive text blocks offer insightful contemporary details on navigable waterways and regional resources. Lewis Evans was perhaps the most capable surveyor in colonial America; his work was so meticulously accurate that it was utilized by both George Washington and General Braddock during the French and Indian War. Even by the late 1790s, Evans’s foundational surveys remained an essential source for the European understanding of the American interior.

Sources: Huntington Library; Boston Rare Maps