Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in antique American maps & prints
An important, rare and very unusual map of North America and the Caribbean, extracted by Blaeu from his landmark West Indische Paskaert to meet a publishing deadline. The Insulae Americanae depicts eastern North America, much of Central America, part of Latin America, and the islands of the Caribbean. The brightly-painted arms of the Netherlands, England […]
![Lewis Evans / Benjamin Franklin (printer) / James Turner (engraver), A general MAP of the MIDDLE BRITISH COLONIES, in AMERICA; Viz VIRGINIA, MARILAND, DELAWARE, PENSILVANIA, NEW-JERSEY, NEW-YORK, CONNECTICUT, and RHODE ISLAND: Of AQUANISHUONÎGY, the Country of the Confederate Indians; … By Lewis Evans. 1755. [Bound in:] Geographical, Historical, Political, Philosophical and Mechanical ESSAYS. The FIRST, Containing An ANALYSIS Of a General MAP of the MIDDLE BRITISH COLONIES IN AMERICA; And of the Country of the Confederate Indians; A Description of the Face of the Country;…By LEWIS EVANS. The second EDITION. PHILADELPHIA: Printed by B. FRANKLIN, and D. HALL. MDCCLV. And sold by J. and R. DODSLEY, in Pall-Mall, London.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/BRM-3427-Evans-Essays-1755_map_lowres-150x150.jpg)
A superb example in full original color of the rare first state of the Lewis Evans Map of the Middle British Colonies, called by Schwartz and Ehrenberg “the most ambitious performance of its kind undertaken in America up to that time.” Bound in, as issued, to Evans’ Analysis of a General Map of the Middle […]
![Color printing. [Jacques-Fabien] Gautier [D’Agoty] / Gautier fils (engraver), CARTE ABR[E]GEE du CANADA levee sur les lieux par M.*** resident a Quebec année 1754. Paris: [Gautier], 1755.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/BRM3127-Gautier-Canada_lowres-e1537367250157-150x150.jpg)
A rare and fascinating thematic map of northeastern North America by a French artist, printer, anatomist and crackpot geologist, remarkable also as an early example of color printing. A former pupil of Jacob Christoph Le Blon, and a pioneer in color-printing, Jacques Fabien Gautier D’Agoty (1717-1785) improved on the methods of his teacher by developing […]
The first comprehensive history of Great Britain’s American colonies written by an American, with a scarce propaganda map promoting British imperial claims in America. The Summary is a fascinating, sprawling collection addressing the geography, natural history and human history of the British colonies in North America, assembled immediately prior to the French and Indian War. […]
![John Norman, THE AMERICAN PILOT CONTAINING THE NAVIGATION of the Sea Coast of NORTH AMERICA, from the Streights of Belle-Isle to Cayenne. Including the Island and Banks of Newfoundland, the West-India Islands, and all the islands on the coast. Boston: Printed and Sold by Wm. Norman at his office No. 75 Newbury Street[,] MDCCXCIIII.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/BRM2788-Norman-American-Pilot_3-e1562353527949-150x150.jpg)
The 1794 edition of John and William Norman’s famed American Pilot, including important charts of Nantucket by Pinkham and of the Carolinas by Dunbibin. One of the first atlases to be published in the United States, and only the third complete copy on the market since the Streeter sale in the mid 1960s. Background Good […]
![Anonymous, CHART of the ATLANTIC OCEAN. No place, no date [but likely American ca. 1810.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/BRM2934-Chart-of-the-Atlantic-Ocean_Gulf-Stream_lowres-scaled-e1576086796955-150x150.jpg)
A most unusual manuscript map of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Stream, based on a map in Bowditch’s New American Practical Navigator but with interesting additions. The map depicts the East Coast of North America, the Caribbean, Central America, the West Coast of Africa, the coasts of northern Spain and France, and of course the […]
Basil Hall (1788-1844) was a British naval officer, traveler and writer. After retiring from the Navy and marrying, he traveled in the United States from 1827-8. His objective “was to see things with my own eyes, in order to ascertain, by personal inspection, how far the sentiments prevalent in England with respect to that country […]
A small archive of material related to the 1842 donation to the Library of Congress of two interesting French and Indian War-era maps of North America. In 1842 Doctor Andrew Nichols (1785-1853), a distinguished citizen of Danvers, Massachusetts, enquired of his Congressman, Leverett Saltonstall (1783-1845), whether the Library of Congress would welcome a gift from […]
An unrecorded edition of the superb Henry Tanner map of North America, issued in 1845 as President Polk was bringing disputes over Oregon and Texas to a boil. Setting its prime meridian at Washington, D.C., the map depicts North America in its entirety, with much attention given to the continent’s river systems and topography. Heavy red […]