Connecticut, from the Best Authorities

This 1795 (1811 or 1814)  map of Connecticut was published by Matthew Carey.   Matthew Carey was born in Dublin, Ireland where he became a businessman in printing and bookselling.   Along the way, he wrote an article referencing the Irish penal code's severity for which he feared prosecution.  He then moved to Paris where he met Benjamin Franklin, who then commissioned Carey for about a year.   Carey then returned to Ireland and left for good in 1784, settling in Philadelphia.   At that point, Carey managed a loan from General Lafayette to found  publishing/ bookselling companies under the names Pennsylvania Herald, Columbian Magazine and American Museum, none of which necessarily turned a profit.  Matthew Carey had numerous publications including Bibles,  a world atlas, and certainly this beautiful map of Connecticut.

     A impossibly scarce 1929 map of Long Island is by Dolph and Stewart.  The map is pre Robert Moses and one could surmise that the rarity correlates to the sparse population or interest of the area as well as the beginning of the Great Depression.  Moses is well noted for creating highways rather than public transportation which helped create the current suburbs throughout Long Island.  A huge undertaking on his watch as Secretary of State  indeed. Some of the place names and people on this map certainly lay claim to the area's history.  For example: John Vanderveer.  His family donated the land where Good Samaritan Hospital now sits overlooking The Great South Bay.  The history of the organization that procured the idea for this only hospital in Islip was actually born by Sisters Marie Louise Trichet and

Louise de Montfort of France in 1701 dedicating their their lives to the unfortunate and creating the Daughters of Wisdom organization which grew to the point of intolerable to French secular groups.   

 The Daughters of Wisdom fled to the United States in 1907.   American Venice.  This area on the map 

pertains to an area on the Great South Bay that in the 20s brought architectural Venice to some of its canals and bridges.  Truly inspirational and during its time must have been beautiful.  I understand salvage and revitalization is still ongoing.  Not only is this map big on history but also alluring for those of us who were born there.  

      On a side note, the geological aspects of Long Island are interesting, in fact an anomaly.  This peninsula was formed by two terminal moraines, the Ronkonkoma and the Harbor Hill, with Ronkonkoma being the older.  They were part of the Wisconsinian Glacier which reached its southern most point about 18,000 years ago.  The terminal or end moraine Harbor Hill is apparent in North Fork, Plum Island, Great Gulf Island and Fischer's Island with its highest point in Nassau County.  The two moraines intersect at Lake Success.

informational sources: The Patch West Islip, NY :  N.Y. courts.gov. ; Wikipedia geography of Long Island  

Williams.EDU ; Britannica

This 1796 map of Vermont is by John Reid.   This map is from his American Atlas, the second published American atlas in the United States.   The first published atlas was By Mathew Carey in 1795.  This map as well as five others were part of William Winterbotham's an Historical,  Geographical,  Commercial.  and Philosophical View of the American United States 1785 publication.  The remaining 15  maps in Reid's atlas were newly produced with engraver John Scoles. The Jay treaty  of 1795 between the U.S.

and Britain aligns the northeast border with the River St. Croix.  At this time Maine was part of Massachusetts as a separate colony.  Maine was ultimately established March 15 1820. 

This rare map is by Thomas Kitchin.  It was part of a 1781 June publication of the London Magazine.

Mr. Kitchen was born 1719 in Southwark England.   He was an apprentice to Emanuel  Bowen for some seven years,  Bowen another renowned cartographer.  Kitchin was on his own by 1740 and eventually recruited his son, also named Thomas, into the business.  He continued  work with Bowen from 1749-1760 to produce The Large English Atlas.  Just to put Kitchen's body of work in perspective, he produced 170 maps for the London Magazine alone.   It is noted that he "borrowed" the works of other cartographers suggesting that would be one of the reasons for his obtuse quantity of maps.  He also wrote a book called The Present State of the West Indies.  It was a description of which European powers of the time  owned what parts of the  West Indies.   I wonder how that went over.   He became Head Hydrographer to the King of England as well did his son.   On a side note, Kitchen Jr. married Bowen's daughter.  Thomas senior passed in June of 1784 and is buried in Saint Alban's Cathedral UK.

    This circa 1795 Ocean State map was part of Mathew Carey's  "American Atlas,"  which was the first atlas of America that was engraved and published in the United States.  Although this map is uncolored, Carey was  the first American map maker to offer hand coloring.   Part of Block Island is depicted at the bottom and this map  conveys waterways, travel routes, and topographical entries, which might not be as accurate today as it may have seemed to be two and a quarter centuries ago.

     Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams in 1636.  He was communicated out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious tolerances and strife for separation of church and state. 

He and his followers moved to Narraganset Bay and settled there after purchasing land from the Narraganset Indians.  He founded the first Baptist church in America and made people of minority religions feel welcome to the region.   A  beautiful college in Bristol is named after him as well as  parks and  recreation areas.  Rhode Island, the smallest state, is only 48 miles long by 37 miles wide but contains over four hundred miles of coastline with some of the most wonderful beaches on the East Coast.  Rhode Island became the thirteenth state May 29, 1790. 

     This informative 1845 map is by Henry Schenk Tanner (1786-1858) as part of his " A New Universal Atlas."   The inset map is of New Orleans.   W. Brose was the engraver.  Tanner's maps and travel guides became the most universal during their time of publication.  It was also a time where steel engravings retired copper providing faster and more enduring plates for publication.   He also produced  "A Geographical and Statistical Account of the Epidemic Cholera from its Commencement in India to its Entrance into the United States," in 1832 conical to the cholera epidemic of 1817.  He wanted to provide data to the spread of the disease via geographic locations as well as tables showing numbers of deaths in localities country by country.   Apparently he was ahead of his time.  

      The first traces of settlement in what is now Louisiana  was during the Archaic Period about 5,500  

years ago.  About 1,000 years ago, the Mississippian culture emerged from the Woodland culture with their largest of cities being Cahokia what is present day southern Illinois.  The Mississippian way of life was developed along the Mississippi River.  The word Mississippi is a derivative of  "Messipi or Mee-zee-see-bee" which comes from the Ojibwe Indians meaning big river.  

      Louisiana, named after King Louis XIV,  became a colony of the Kingdom of France in 1682.  Spain took control of the territory near the end of the Seven Years  War per the terms of the Treaty of Fountainebleau  in 1762, and The Treaty of Paris in 1763.   France was also forced to give up claims East of the Mississippi back to the British.   In 1765 several thousand French Speaking refugees from Nova Scotia (Acadia) migrated to Louisiana led by Joseph Broussard.  They were welcomed by the Catholic Spaniard population and came to be called "Cajuns"

     A major emigration to Louisiana happened between 1791 and 1804. The Haitian Revolution included thousands of Haitians, free people of color, whites and enslaved African refugees  who settled mainly in New Orleans, all of which added to the French speaking creole.  The largest slave revolt in U.S. history

happened upriver of New Orleans only to be quelled within 20 miles of the city gates  where U.S. military as well as civilian militias were waiting.  The "German Coast Uprising" is not high on history compilations but is notable.

     Following the Civil War, Louisiana and much of the South was under northern command through the Reconstruction Era (1865-1877) pertinent to the Emancipation Proclamation which was supposed to end confederate secession of eleven states and abolish slavery.  Tensions were high after the war and 

paramilitary groups were formed to protect southern interests including the Ku Klux Clan and  the White League.  On Easter Sunday 1873, some 100 Black people were killed in the Colfax Massacre and in 1874, six Republicans were killed in the Coushatta massacre.  Guilty by association considering Lincoln was a republican I suppose.  Through the 1880's Southern Democrats began to reduce voter registration of black and poor whites with complicated institutionalized forms, voter intimidation, taxation at the polls,  and literacy tests.

      Louisiana is a beautiful State,  with a incredibly vast and dynamic history. The  architecture in New Orleans is beautifully unique not to mention the food as well as this beautiful 1845 map. 

      This map was produced by  James Thackara in 1797.  It was issued in Robert Proud's "History of Pennsylavania" which reads "Engrav'd for RP's Hist. of Penn" on the map.  In addition to the obvious geography, it also includes "with parts adjacent" which is also on the map to include areas west to the Ohio River, north to the New York border and south to Port Royal, Virginia.  Port Royal, Virginia was where authorities found John Wilkes Booth April 26, 1865 held up in a barn  where he was killed while resisting arrest after Lincoln's assassination.  Ironically, the Emancipation Proclamation was first read at the Proclamation Tree during Christmas in Port Royal, South Carolina 1863.  The map shows Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburg, and even notes the pine barracks of New Jersey.  It is chock full of cities, towns, rivers, mountains and places of history which makes for very interesting research reading.

     James Thackara (1767-1848) was a Philadelphia engraver that produced cartography for noted publishing houses such as Tanner, Melish and Ellicott.  He helped engrave the very important 1792  Vallance map of Washington D. C. which was the original official plan of D. C., a commission procured by the Residence act of 1790.

     Robert Proud (1728-1813)  published "History of Pennsylvania" volumes 1 and 2  in 1797 and 1798 

respectively.  The introduction is about and reads " The Life of W. Penn,  prior to the grant of the Province,  and the religious society of the people called Quakers - with the first rife  of the neighboring 

Colonies,  more particularly of  West New Jersey and the Settlement of the Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware."  It was printed and sold by Zachariah Poulson, Junior, Number 80 Chestnut-Street Philadelphia.

    This fine map of South Carolina was published in 1855 by Joseph Hutchins Colton.  It is chock full of  topographical features such as swamps, rivers, towns, mountains, railroads, routes. etc etc.  The inset is of the City of Charleston and surrounding areas out through Charleston Harbor to Sullivan and Morris's Islands meeting the Atlantic with Folly Island to the South.  One could spend a lot of time indulging in the history of so many places noted on this scarce first edition map. 

     In 1855 the South Carolina Historical Society was founded to preserve South Carolina's rich historical legacy.  It is the largest private holder of  historical artifacts including maps. books,  journals, and photographs in South Carolina. 

     J. H. Colton was born in Longmeadow Massachusetts July 5, 1800.  He moved to New York to establish his business in 1831 where this map was made.   He went on to employ  some of the best engravers at the time including Samuel Stiles and Griffing Johnson to name a couple.  Colton's pocket maps, large wall maps, atlases and even immigrant guides were so progressive, the company became one of a couple eminent international publishers of maps during the period. The Colton Company maps were printed using steel engravings which produced sharper quality and greater longevity of the sharpness of those  plates.  Sons George and Charles joined the business sometime in the early 1850's. 

Joseph Hutchins Colton passed on July 29, 1893. 

    This stately and very detailed 1866 map is by Johnson and Ward.  It encompasses both Maryland and Delaware with a very detailed inset of the District of Columbia.  As the most decorative of the Maryland and Delaware series it displays the General Post Office, the Treasury Building and the Patent Office at the top.  At the bottom center text describes the work of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. 

In essence, this collaboration formed a demarcation line or the Mason Dixon Line.  It involved the separation of four U.S. states including Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia which was part of Virginia until 1863.  The origins of the dispute started almost a century earlier by grants afforded to Lord Baltimore from King Charles l and William Penn supported by Charles ll.  Ultimately the Mason Dixon Line became the boundary between the Northern free states and the Southern slave states. 

     Alvin J. Johnson (1827-1884) was a New York publisher.  After leaving the Colton Map Publishing Company  he produced "Johnson's Family Atlases" from 1860 to 1862.  Those atlases were under his name or his name and Browning.  Between 1862 and 1866 his maps were associated with Ward.  Johnson's maps show sequential progress of towns, counties, states and railroads during the expansion of the 1800's. Truly his maps connect a place and time in our countries history.  

     She shells sea shells at the seashore, rather,  She sells sea sells at the seashore.....never mind.  Her name was Sally.  This map is part of a first publication called "The Book Of Summer Resorts" compiled and released by Charles H. Sweetser in 1868.  The book contains 528 pages with five folding maps including this one which is the largest at 13" x 16.8" by  G.W. & G.B. Colton and Co. of New York.  The other maps covered Rensselaer, Saratoga, Rutland, Burlington, Lake Champlain, Long Island Sound, Canada, Battlefields of  Virginia and excursion routes and sites respectively.  Now that's a travel book. 

     I bought this map because it brought me back to my childhood. For the better part of my first 18 years I spent two weeks a year at LBI...Jersey.   My mother and her twin sister had ten kids between them.   Twelve people in a two bedroom bungalow for two weeks,  some of the best memories only to be backed up by my vacations with my own family at the Cape the last number of years. 

     This map is ideally suited for a beach house, provided there aren't five boys wrestling and throwing baseballs and footballs around in it while the cats are away.

     This 1865 map is by Samuel Augustus Mitchel Jr.  Samuel  inherited the company from his father in 1860.  Mitchel Sr. was born in Bristol, CT in 1792 and moved to Philadelphia upstarting the business circa 1830.  At its apex the company produced 400,000 publications annually and employed some 250 people.  They were one of the first to really scale up steel engraved publications. 

     Georgia and Alabama are two of the  states that formed the Confederate States of America.  This organization was formed  February 8, 1861 in declaration of secession from the Union.  Although the embers had been burning, this quest for sovereignty helped stoke the start of the Civil War.  It was during this period the Bullock Brothers, agents for the Confederacy,  commissioned British boatyards to build warships disguised as merchant ships to commandeer Northern Merchant ships and take their cargo.  The most successful of the Confederate ships was the Alabama which seized 58 vessels before it was taken down by a U.S. warship in 1864.  In all more than 150 Northern ships were taken which impaired the war effort not only with supplies but also with labor.  Many of the merchant sailors preferred to enlist in Europe.  This cooperation between Britain and the Confederacy proved very damaging to the U.S.  The "Alabama Claims" against Britain were resolved peacefully with the Treaty of Washington May 8, 1871 in which Britain via, the arbitration commission was to pay the U.S. $15.5 million in damages associated with the Alabama Claims.  Charles Sumner, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee maintained that the British aid to the Confederacy prolonged the war by two years at a cost of over 2 billion.  The Confederate States of America had it's run end on May 9, 1865.