1771 A New and Accurate Map of Part of North America...
DESCRIPTION
This map offers one of the earliest detailed depictions of the British North American colonies prepared from extensive on-the-ground observation rather than from military reconnaissance alone.
Engraved by John Gibson for the 1771 London edition of Peter Kalm’s Travels into North America, it reflects firsthand geographic knowledge gathered during Kalm’s travels through the colonies in the 1740s. Issued just a few years before the outbreak of the American Revolution, the map captures eastern North America at a pivotal moment when settlement, trade, and frontier expansion were reshaping the continent.
The map extends from the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River southward through New England, the Middle Colonies, and into Virginia. Lake Ontario and Lake Erie are carefully formed, while the Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, and Ohio Rivers are prominently traced as the principal corridors into the interior. The frontier regions of Pennsylvania and Virginia are filled with references to forts, Indian towns, and early settlements, illustrating the fragile and shifting boundary between colonial expansion and Indigenous territory.
Along the Atlantic coast, the engraving records the harbors and maritime approaches of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia with clarity and precision. Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Long Island, and the complex inlets of New Jersey and the Chesapeake are articulated in detail, underscoring the economic importance of coastal trade. Inland roads and town names are densely distributed in New England and the Middle Colonies, offering a vivid snapshot of colonial infrastructure before independence transformed political geography.
Peter Kalm, a Finnish naturalist and student of Carl Linnaeus, traveled to North America under commission from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to study its agriculture, natural resources, and commercial potential. His published travels became one of the most influential European accounts of colonial America in the eighteenth century. The inclusion of this map in the 1771 English edition reflects both Enlightenment scientific curiosity and growing European interest in the economic and strategic importance of Britain’s American colonies.
CONDITION
1200 W. 35th Street #425 Chicago, IL 60609 | P: (312) 496 - 3622