Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in antique American maps & prints
A fascinating 18th-century map of the mid-Atlantic region, including the short-lived colony of New Sweden. Engraved in Upsala, Sweden by Jonas Silfverling, it was typically issued as a folding plate in Eric Tobias Biorck’s Dissertatio Gradualis de Plantatione Ecclesiae Svecanae in America. According to Streeter the Dissertatio was “the first book written by a native […]
![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 […]
![[English Pilot] VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, PENNSILVANIA, East & West NEW JERSEY. London: Sold by Jno. Mount & Thos. Page Tower Hill, [1689/ca. 1773].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/BRM1767I3-English-Pilot-Chesapeake-ca-1773-e1550173339819-150x150.jpg)
An important early chart of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bay regions from The English Pilot. The Fourth Book, based upon the seminal work of Augustine Hermann. The chart depicts the coast from Staten Island as far south as modern-day Virginia Beach. The geography is based largely on that of Augustine Hermann’s monumental 1673 map Virginia and […]
![[Lieutenant George Walker Dyall Jones?], A View and Plan of Mud Island on the Delaware. NP, [but Philadelphia late 1777-early 1778?]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/BRM3513-Mud-Island-1777_78-after-restoration_lowres-scaled-e1585001091905-150x150.jpg)
Finely-executed Revolutionary War manuscript plan and view of Fort Mifflin on Mud Island on the Delaware River, with one of the earliest-known images of an American flag. Almost certainly produced by an engineer serving in William Howe’s army during the 1777 Philadelphia campaign, which ended with the reduction of Fort Mifflin after a terrible six-week siege. […]
A most appealing copy of the scarce French edition of “one of the most valuable sources on the West during the British period.” (Streeter). Authored by Thomas Hutchins, one of the great cartographers of 18th-century America. Born in Philadelphia in 1730, Thomas Hutchins had a long and productive career as an explorer, surveyor and mapmaker. […]
![John Adlum & John Wallis, A Map Exhibiting A GENERAL VIEW of the Roads and Inland Navigation OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND PART OF THE ADJACENT STATES. Respectfully inscribed to Thomas Mifflin, Governor, and the General Assembly of the Commonwealth OF PENNSYLVANIA [Philadelphia, 1792?]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BRM3503-Adlum-Pennsylvania-1791_lowres-150x150.jpg)
A rare, impressive and important map of Pennsylvania by John Adlum promoting the development of a statewide road and canal network. The intent was to position Philadelphia as a leading destination for the products of the interior while enriching speculators in “western” lands. Background The end of the Revolutionary War, with the resultant economic dislocation […]
A mammoth, detailed and rare 18th-century American chart of Chesapeake Bay. From John and William Norman’s American Pilot, one of the earliest atlases published in the United States. This impressive chart depicts the complex coast from New Jersey south to just below Cape Henry, Virginia. It provides an immense amount of detail for Delaware Bay […]
A scarce, separately issued map showing the route of the proposed Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. After the Revolutionary War, George Washington was the chief advocate of using waterways to connect the Eastern Seaboard to the Great Lakes and Ohio River. To this end he founded the Potowmack Company in 1785, in order to improve the […]