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Exceptional example of William Norman's important early sea chart of the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, the second large format sea chart of the region published in America.
An American imprint of great importance and rarity, Norman's chart is one of the earliest American-made charts to focus on the Georgia coastline. It depicts the area from just north of Kiawah Island in central South Carolina to the mouth of the St. John River in northern Florida. At lower right is an inset: "A Chart of the Bar and Harbour of Charlestown."The map is exceptionally detailed for the period, with a wonderful primitive engraving style indicative of 18th Century American printing.
The American Revolution brought an end to Britain's leading role in the mapping of America. The task now fell to the American publishing industry, still in its infancy, but with direct access to new surveys that were documenting the rapid growth of the nation. In particular, there was a need for nautical charts for use by the expanding New England commercial fleets. The first American marine atlas, Matthew Clark's A Complete Set of Charts of the Coast of America, was published in Boston in 1790.
In 1791 John Norman of Boston first published The American Pilot, containing the navigation of the sea coast of North America. Norman's Pilot was the second sea atlas published in America, the first being by William Clark, published in 1789-1790. (Norman also had a part in Clark's "Pilot," as he was the engraver for a majority of the charts.) In 1794, William Norman appeared as the publisher of this Pilot, taking over from John Norman.
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