![Jos[eph] F[rederick] W[allet] Des Barres Esqr.,The Coast of Nova Scotia, New England, NEW-YORK, JERSEY, The GULPH and RIVER of St. LAWRENCE. The ISLANDS of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, St. John, Antecosty, Sable & c. and SOUNDINGS thereof. [London:] I.F.W. Des Barres Esqr., Nov. 1, 1780 [but probably mid-late 1784].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/BRM3679-Des-Barres-Nova-Scotia-New-England_lowres-scaled-e1604698513688-150x150.jpg)
The capstone of the British mapping of northeastern North America
A rare, monumental and momentous general chart of northeastern North America, representing the capstone of British efforts to map the region after the end of the French and Indian War, and described as “by far the most accurate cartographic rendering of its subject made for many decades.” (Alex Johnson) This example separately published, probably in […]
![[Emanuel Bowen & John Gibson], A NEW MAP OF NORTH AMERICA; with the WEST INDIA ISLANDS, DIVIDED according to the Preliminary Articles of Peace, Signed at Versailles, 20. Jan. 1783, wherein are particularly Distinguished THE UNITED STATES, and the SEVERAL PROVINCES, GOVERNMENTS &ca. which Compose THE BRITISH DOMINIONS; LAID DOWN according to THE LATEST SURVEYS, and Corrected from THE ORIGINAL MATERIALS, OF GOVER.N POWNALL, MEM.BR OF PARLIA.MT 1783. London: Robert Sayer, August 15th, 1786.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/BRM3758-Sayer-New-map-of-North-America_composite_lowres-150x150.jpg)
Sayer’s New Map of North America, highlighting the settlement of the Treaty of Paris
An attractive example of a landmark map first compiled by Emanuel Bowen and issued by Robert Sayer early in the French and Indian War, here updated to show the outcome of the American Revolution. Thus interesting in its own right, but also a fine example of the long, complicated publication histories of some of the […]
![Osgood Carleton, AN ACCURATE MAP, of The DISTRICT OF MAINE Being Part of the Commonwealth of MASSACHUSETTS: Compiled pursuant to an Act of the GENERAL COURT, From Actual Surveys of the several Towns &c. TAKEN BY THEIR ORDER: Exhibiting, the boundary Lines of the District the Counties and Towns, the principal Roads, Rivers, Mountains, Mines, Islands, Rocks, Shoals, Channels, Lakes, Ponds, Falls, Mills, Manufactures, and Public Buildings, with the Latitudes and Longitudes &c. Boston: Published and Sold by O. Carleton & J. Norman, [1798.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/BRM3497-Norman-Carleton-Maine_post-restoration_lowres-scaled-e1587132600268-150x150.jpg)
Osgood Carleton’s 1798 Accurate Map of the District of Maine
A great rarity, Osgood Carleton’s Accurate Map of the District of Maine is among the most desirable early Maine maps, the most detailed to appear in the eighteenth century, and one of the earliest maps sponsored by an American state. Carleton’s map depicts the then-District of Maine at a scale of six miles to the […]
![J[oseph] N[icholas] Nicollet / Assisted by J[ohn] C[harles] Fremont / W.J. Stone Sc[ulpsit], MAP OF THE HYDROGRAPHICAL BASIN OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER From Astronomical and Barometrical Observations, Surveys and Information. BY J. N. NICOLLET. MADE IN THE YEARS 1836, 37, 38, 39 & 40, ASSISTED IN 1838, 39 & 40, BY LIEUT. J. C. FREMONT OF THE CORPS OF TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS Under the Superintendence of the Bureau of the Corps of Topographical Engineers and authorized by THE WAR DEPARTMENT. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Senate, 1942.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/BRM3340-Nicollet-Hydrographic-Basin-Mississippi_composite_lowres-scaled-e1617663377885-150x150.jpg)
A great Western rarity: The first edition of the Nicollet map of the Upper Mississippi River basin
The exceptionally rare six-sheet Nicollet & Fremont map of the upper Mississippi River, considered the foundation of modern mapping of the Upper Midwest and Great Plains and “One of the most important contributions ever made to American geography.” (Gouverneur Kemble Warren). Nicollet’s map depicts the Mississippi Basin from just below the mouth of the Missouri […]

Monumental 1831 world map by Henry Tanner
A remarkable wall map of the world by the remarkable Henry Tanner and arguably the culminating cartographic achievement of his career. “The object of Mr. Tanner was not to make a reprint of any former map, but to incorporate into one splendid effort, the correct delineations of existing publications with the late discoveries of Ross, […]
![G[riffith] M[organ] Hopkins (mapmaker) / Friend & Aub (lithographer) / Thomas & S. Wagner’s Lith. (printer), CLARK & TACKABURYS’ NEW Topographical Map of the State of CONNECTICUT. Philadelphia: Richard Clark and Rob[er]t M. and Geo[rge] N. Tackabury, 1859/1860.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BRM3770-Hopkins-Connecticut-1860_lowres-scaled-e1617717227619-150x150.jpg)
The Clark and Tackabury map of Connecticut
A mammoth map of Connecticut published by Clark and Tackabury in 1860, for its time by far the finest map of the state. An unusually appealing example in case-map format. The decade of the 1850s marked a new high-water mark of American map publishing, with thousands of large-scale national, state, county, city and town maps […]

1860 manuscript survey of Fort Mifflin and Mud Island, on the Delaware River below Philadelphia
A mammoth 1860 plan of Mud Island and historic Fort Mifflin, today the only active American military base dating to before the Revolutionary War. Mud Island sits in a controlling position at the outlet of the Schuykill into the Delaware River, just below Philadelphia. The first fort was built there in 1771-1777, but was all […]

Terrific Civil War-era strip map of the Mississippi River by J. T. Lloyd
J. T. Lloyd’s scarce and richly informative strip map of the lower Mississippi River from St. Louis to its outlet in the Gulf of Mexico. The desirable second edition containing important updates concerning the Civil War. A visually very pleasing example with period hand color, a warm patina, and only minor restoration. In both its […]

The lighthouses of Great Britain and Ireland … a tour de force of data visualization
A rare tour de force of data visualization, depicting with elegance and visual economy the intensity and sweep of the lighthouses of Great Britain, and Ireland and the North Sea. As a nation that lived and died by the sea, in a region often wracked by bad weather, it was no wonder that by the mid-19th […]
![William P. Twamley / Photo lithographed by A. Hoen & Co., Baltimore, C.E., MAP OF THE CITY OF BALTIMORE MADE FROM OFFICIAL DATA AND ACTUAL SURVEYS. [Baltimore: William P. Twamley, 1881].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/BRM3772-Twamley-City-of-Baltimore_lowres-150x150.jpg)
Unrecorded map of Baltimore by William Twamley
An impressive and unrecorded 1881 case map of Baltimore, produced by one of the city’s leading civil engineers in an era of rapid development and population growth. Described by his obituary as a “civil engineer of the first rank”, William P. Twamley was for 40 years “closely identified with both the industrial and physical growth […]
![[John and Morton Edgar], PASSAGE SYSTEM OF THE GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZEH IN THE LAND OF EGYPT June—July 1909. [Glasgow: Bone & Hulley, 1910 or later].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/BRM3780-Passage-System-Great-Pyramid-1909_lowres-scaled-e1617915754115-150x150.jpg)
The brothers Edgar tackle the Great Pyramid of Giza
A large, striking and exceedingly rare banner with a cutaway view of the Great Pyramid of Giza, reflecting the observations and conclusions of early 20th-century pyramidologists John and Morton Edgar. Broadly speaking, pyramidology is the study of early pyramids with an eye toward uncovering their hidden metaphysical, mystical, prophetic, spiritual and/or theological significance. The underlying […]

Mammoth 1913 school map of the United States by an ethnic-Armenian immigrant aspiring to citizenship
A mammoth hand-drawn and –painted school map of the United States produced in 1913 by an ethnic-Armenian immigrant from Turkey, aspiring to citizenship in his adopted country. At more than five by six-and-one-half feet the map is vast, but also simple in design, clearly designed to be hung on a wall and viewed at a considerable […]
![A. Duplessy [Duplessis], GLOBE PLAT OU MAPPE-MONDE d’une Projection nouvelle DÉDIÉE ET PRÉSENTÉE A S. A. S. MGR. LE PCE. DE CONTI. Paris: A. Duplessy, [1769-70.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BRM3238-Duplessy-Globe-Plat-1769_lowres-e1567197613435-150x150.jpg)
Rare 18th-century paper instrument with an unusual flat earth projection
A rare and unusual instrument, featuring a volvelle with a distinctive flat earth projection of the world. One of only three examples located. The instrument consists of a large engraved diagram mounted on a heavy pasteboard backing, as issued. The central feature of the diagram is a map of the world projected on a single […]
![D[aniel] F[riedrich] Sotzmann [and Christoph Ebeling] / P. Schmidt Sculp., VERMONT entworfen von D.F. Sotzmann. Hamburg: Carl Ernst Bohn, 1796.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/BRM3767-Sotzmann-Vermont-1796_lowres-scaled-e1615391074918-150x150.jpg)
The Ebeling – Sotzmann map of Vermont
The finest 18th–century map of Vermont, compiled by D.F. Sotzmann and Christoph Ebeling, two German geographers who never visited America. This lovely map depicts considerable detail of the state’s natural geography, including lakes, rivers, streams, and even waterfalls, as well as the Green Mountains and lesser areas of elevation. Political boundaries are shown, with state, […]
![[Byron Kilbourn and Increase Lapham] / Engraved by W[illiam] Haviland, Cincinnati, CITY OF MILWAUKEE. NP, ND, but 1836.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/BRM3727-Milwaukee_lowres-150x150.jpg)
The first printed plan of Milwaukee Wisconsin
An important American map, being the first printed plan of Milwaukee Wisconsin executed by early settlers Byron Kilbourn and Increase Lapham in 1835-36. The plan is a wonderful rarity whose story is intertwined with the founding and early controversies of the city. The plan depicts the future city extending for perhaps 1 ½ miles along […]

Rare Newport Rhode Island property atlas by G.M. Hopkins
A very scarce and extraordinarily-detailed atlas of Newport, Rhode Island in the Gilded Age, when old and new money competed to build extravagant “cottages” along Atlantic-facing Bellevue and Ocean Avenues. Though it had been a thriving commercial port during the Colonial era, Newport’s economy suffered badly during the Revolution, and thereafter it was eclipsed by […]

Franklin Leavitt map of the White Mountains
A wonderful and scarce pictorial map by the renowned White Mountains cartographer, adventurer and poet Franklin Leavitt. By the mid-19th century the transmission of the Romantic ethos across the Atlantic, the rise of a middle class with disposable income, and the development of rail links with coastal cities transformed the White Mountains into a major […]
![[Fritz Kahn] / Fricke & Co. Stuttgart, THE HUMAN FACTORY[.] Sketch of the chemical functions of the body. [Stuttgart, prob. 1930s].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/BRM3762-Kahn-Human-as-Factory_lowres-scaled-e1616603608576-150x150.jpg)
Iconic Fritz Kahn infographic of the Human Factory
A stunning and very rare English-language edition of the iconic Fritz Kahn infographic likening the human body to a miniature chemical plant. Fritz Kahn Born in Halle, Germany in 1888 to an orthodox Jewish family, physician, science writer and graphic designer Fritz Kahn spent much of his life on the move. He studied medicine in […]