To David Stone and Peter Brown, Esqrs. : this first actual survey of the state of North Carolina taken by the subscribers is respectfully dedicated
Some years back, the author published a history of the 1807/1808 map of North Carolina by Jonathan Price and John Strother (see Reflecting on the Price-Strother map...). The map was printed from three engraved plates, the printed sheets from which, when joined, would make a complete map. The article referenced above included a tabulation of the different states of each of the three sheets, and the various combinations of sheets found joined together to form a whole map. Since that article was published, a few additional extant copies of the map have come to the attention of the author. Additionally, the author has recognized an error in numbering of the states for the Western sheet.
In Reflecting on the Price-Strother map…, six states of the Western sheet are listed. However, there are only five states. One extant copy has a well-executed manuscript annotation of the date on a Western sheet State 2. This fooled the author into thinking it was an update to the engraving. Thus, Western sheet State 3 as listed in Reflecting on the Price-Strother map… has been removed, and States 4-6 have been renumbered 3-5.
The corrected states for each sheet are listed below.
Western Sheet = states W1-W5
- State 1. Undated; DAVIE* County in NW corner of State; BUNCOMB & WILKS Counties (each lacking an “E”); engraver and printer imprints (William Harrison and C.P. Harrison, respectively) are present.
- State 2. ASHE (correctly replacing Davie) County
- State 3. 1808 added below title; BUNCOMBE & WILKES (missing “E” added to each)
- State 4. Printer’s imprint (C.P. Harrison) erased
- State 5. See 1826 updates listed separately at end of this post.
* The manuscript map was completed in 1799, presumably before Ashe County was established that same year. Davie is curiously mis-engraved as D AD V I E (an inexplicable AD ligature). Although the General Assembly contemplated naming a county for William Davie in the 1790s, there is no evidence that the county now known as Ashe was the focus.
Piedmont Sheet = states P1-P3
- State 1. IREDEL / ROAN (county names misspelled)
- State 2. IREDELL / ROWAN (both corrected)
- State 3. See 1826 updates listed separately at end of this post.
Eastern Sheet = states E1-E5
- State 1. BEAUFORT County not shown (though in existence since 1712); EDGECOMB (lacking the final “E”)
- State 2. BEAUFORD (with a “D”) County; GRANVILLS LINE added. An “Explanation” of map symbols added to the lower right corner.
- State 3. BEAUFORT (correct spelling) County
- State 4. EDGECOMBE (final “E” added)
- State 5. See 1826 updates listed separately at end of this post.
A summary of Sheet combinations in extant copies of the Price-Strother map
Sixteen extant copies of the Price-Strother map have been examined, either in person or via digital images found on line. There are twelve different combinations of the three sheets amongst those sixteen maps. The numbers given below are the state for each sheet, in order of Western-Piedmont-Eastern sheets:
- 1-1-1 State Archives-c1, Raleigh
- 2-1-1 Privately held
- 2-1-3 American Philosophical Society (rec’d 19 Feb 1808)
- 2-1-3 Colonial Williamsburg
- 2-1-4* Harvard
- 3-1-3 State Archives-c2, Raleigh
- 3-1-3 Anonymous organization
- 3-1-4 American Antiquarian Society
- 3-2-2 UK Hydrographic Office -Taunton, Somerset, UK
- 3-2-3 American Geographical Society Library at UW-Milwaukee
- 3-2-4 ECU
- 3-2-4 Library of Congress
- 4-2-2 National Archives
- 4-2-4 North Carolina Collection (UNC-Chapel Hill)
- 4-2-4 Privately held
- 5-3-5 Bibliotheque nationale de France
- 5-3-5 Privately held
* The Harvard copy has several manuscript annotations adding a date and updating the spelling of county names. It has an “E” on the end of Edgecombe (State 4), though confirmation that the “E” is engraved and not manuscript (which would make the Eastern sheet State 3) has not been obtained.
At least one additional extant copy of the Price-Strother map is known, in a private collection, though the sheet combination is currently unknown. It might be the Streeter copy sold in 1967; if not, then a second extant copy is out there somewhere. If anyone has information regarding other surviving copies of this remarkable map, please contact the author via https://ncmaps.org/contact/
Finally, the Moravian Archives in Winston-Salem possesses a severely distressed copy, lacking the Eastern sheet altogether, and with a large rectangular cutout on the Piedmont sheet, excising all of Stokes County (now Stokes and Forsyth counties) and portions of the adjacent counties.
The 1826 edition of the Price-Strother map
Philadelphia bookbinder and publisher Robert DeSilver likely saw the 25 May 1826 advertisement in a local newspaper for the sale of the copperplates of the Price-Strother map. Although the original engraver’s imprint, William Harrison, is unchanged on the 1826 map, no records have been located to confirm who updated the copperplates for DeSilver in 1826. It very likely may have been the seller of the plates, James Porter, since William Harrison apparently had relocated to Georgetown, D.C., by 1825, and Porter was a well-known copperplate engraver and print publisher in Philadelphia. Regardless of who did the engraving in 1826, the revision to the plates stopped well short of an “improved to 1826” map. Although three new counties are depicted (Haywood and Columbus [1808] and Davidson [1822]) and Greene County is correctly named, the 1826 map fails to improve on any of the typographical errors of its predecessors, and most of the new towns established since 1808 (e.g., Greensboro) are not shown. The changes to each sheet are summarized below:
WESTERN SHEET – State 5
- Title amended with “Improved to 1826 By R.De Silver”.
- Boundary with South Carolina has been corrected along the Blue Ridge to the 35th parallel.
- Haywood County has been added to the previous blank SW corner of the State.
- Many place names (including the county seat of Waynesville) and topographical features are shown in Haywood County, and are derived directly from Henry Tanner’s 1823 map.
- The “T” and “E” of TENNESSEE have been moved to the west.
- BUNCOMBE place name moved to accommodate Haywood County.
- Moriston has been corrected (at least partially) to ASHVILLE.
- There is still no town name in Ashe County, even though Tanner’s map shows JEFFERSONTON.
PIEDMONT SHEET – State 3
- Wilkes County seat is still “CourtHouse” although Tanner’s map shows “WILKESVILLE”.
- DAVIDSON COUNTY added, requiring “ROWAN COUNTY” place name to be re-engraved/moved.
- Salisbury is still spelled SALESBURY, an error repeated on Tanner’s 1823 map.
- Greensboro, established in 1808, is still not shown (it is shown on Tanner’s map).
- Randolph County seat is still “CourtHouse”, although named ASHBORO on Tanner’s map.
- Moore County seat is still “Moor Court H”, although named CARTHAGE on Tanner’s map.
- COLUMBUS COUNTY added, and its territory appropriately colored. However, the engraved county line which formerly separated Bladen and Brunswick counties (from which Columbus County was derived) has not been erased and this “boundary” bisects Columbus County.
- BRUNSWICK COUNTY place name moved to accommodate Columbus County. However, the “C O” of Bladen County remains in Columbus County.
- There is no town name in Columbus County, although the Tanner map does show WHITESVILLE [sic].
EASTERN SHEET – State 5
- Greene County is now correctly named, though its seat is indicated only by “Court H.” The Tanner map correctly shows Snow Hill as the seat.
- BERTIE COUNTY place name moved to a more central location within the county. Previously, it had been placed at the extreme north of the county.
- A sampling of typographical errors that persist include LENEOIR for Lenoir, PASOUOTANK for Pasquotank, TYRREL for Tyrrell, and ALEGATOR R. for Alligator R. Of these, Tanner corrected Pasquotank and Alligator, the latter to ALLIGATORS.