A place to discuss North Carolina's cartographic history
The Pocket Atlas Maps of North Carolina published by Mathew Carey, 1796-1820. Mathew Carey published his first “Carey’s American Pocket Atlas” in 1796. The engraved plate for this map of North Carolina was used in later issues of Carey’s pocket… Read moreCarey Pocket Atlas Maps of North Carolina
This update is already outdated. An example of the Price-Strother map sold in 2024 has earlier states of the Western and Piedmont sheets than previously known. One day I may get around to updating this post. Or maybe not; depends… Read moreVariants and States of Price-Strother map of North Carolina
Samuel Pearce published a huge map of North Carolina in 1859, embellished with decorative elements at the top and bottom. It represents the final map printed from the copper plates first used to print the 1833 MacRae-Brazier map.
The 1833 MacRae-Brazier map of North Carolina, after lying dormant for two decades, made multiple reappearances in the 1850s. In Chapter 2, we’ll discuss the second state of the map, published by Wellington Williams in 1854.
The 1857 wall map of North Carolina, published by William D. Cooke, is one of the rarest 19th Century maps of the state. Learn more about its publication history and the various states of the map.
John Lawson published a map of Carolina in A New Voyage to Carolina in 1709; most people familiar with Lawson know of this map. However, virtually unknown is Lawson’s map of Ocracoke Inlet, titled “Ocacock Inlet No. Carolina”, with an engraved date of August 22d, 1709. Read more about it via the linked pdf.
Priority of the 3 first edition issues of Blome’s “A Description of the Island of Jamaica…” can be determined by the state of the map of Carolina.
Published cartographic reference works have described a single state of Richard Blome’s 1672 map of Carolina. The PDF linked below describes three states of the map.
The two separate states of John Collet’s 1770 map, A compleat map of North-Carolina from an actual survey / by Capt’n Collet, are described.
There are only about thirteen known surviving copies of John Henry’s 1770 map of Virginia. One of these, in the Biblioteca nacional de España, was printed from an earlier state of the copper plates than all other known extant copies. Read more about it in the attached PDF.