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Introduction:

The popular misconception of California as an island can be found on European maps from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. From its first portrayal on a printed map by Diego Gutiérrez, in 1562, California was shown as part of North America by mapmakers, including Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius. In the 1620s, however, it began to appear as an island in several sources. While most of these show the equivalent of the modern state of California separated from the continent, others, like a manuscript chart by Joao Teixeira Albernaz I (ca. 1632) now in the collection of the National Library of Brasil shows the entire western half of North Americas as an island. 

The myth of California as an island was most likely the result of the travel account of Sebastian Vizcaino, who had been sent north up the shore of California in 1602. A Carmelite friar, Fray Antonio de la Ascensión, accompanied him. Ascension described the land as an island and around 1620 sketched maps to that effect. Normally, this information would have been reviewed and locked in the Spanish repository, the Casa de la Contratación. However, the manuscript maps were intercepted in the Atlantic by the Dutch, who took them to Amsterdam where they began to circulate. Ascensión also published descriptions of the insular geography in Juan Torquemada’s Monarquia Indiana (1613) (with the island details curtailed somewhat) and in his own Relación breve of ca. 1620.

The first known maps to show California as an island were on the title pages of Antonio de Herrera’s Descripción de las Indias Occidentales (1622) and Jacob le Maire's Spieghel Der Australische Navigatie (1622). Two early examples of larger maps are those by Abraham Goos (1624) and another by Henry Briggs, which was included in Samuel Purchas’ Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625). In addition to Briggs and Goos, prominent practitioners like Jan Jansson and Nicolas Sanson adopted the new island and the practice became commonplace. John Speed’s map (1626-7), based on Briggs’ work, is well known for being one of the first to depict an insular California.

The island of California became a fixture on mid- and late-seventeenth century maps. The island suggested possible links to the Northwest Passage, with rivers in the North American interior supposedly connecting to the sea between California and the mainland. Furthermore, Francis Drake had landed in northern California on his circumnavigation (1577-80) and an insular California suggested that Spanish power in the area could be questioned.

Not everyone was convinced, however. Father Eusebio Kino, after extensive travels in what is now California, Arizona, and northern Mexico concluded that the island was actually a peninsula and published a map refuting the claim (Paris, 1705). Another skeptic was Guillaume De L’Isle. In 1700, De L’Isle discussed “whether California is an Island or a part of the continent” with J. D. Cassini; the letter was published in 1715. After reviewing all the literature available to him in Paris, De L’Isle concluded that the evidence supporting an insular California was not trustworthy. He also cited more recent explorations by the Jesuits (including Kino) that disproved the island theory. Later, in his map of 1722 (Carte d’Amerique dressee pour l’usage du Roy), De L’Isle would abandon the island theory entirely.

Despite Kino’s and De L’Isle’s work, California as an island remained common on maps until the mid-eighteenth century. De L’Isle’s son-in-law, Philippe Buache, for example, remained an adherent of the island depiction for some time. Another believer was Herman Moll, who reported that California was unequivocally an island, for he had had sailors in his offices that claimed to have circumnavigated it. In the face of such skepticism, the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, had to issue a decree in 1747 proclaiming California to be a peninsula connected to North America; the geographic chimera, no matter how appealing, was not to be suffered any longer, although a few final maps were printed with the lingering island.


Place/Date:
Paris / 1683
Size:
4 x 6.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
89394
Place/Date:
Budapest? / 1740
Size:
14 x 12.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
99668
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1696 circa
Size:
34 x 39 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
54815
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1682 circa
Size:
18 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
93431
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1700
Size:
17 x 12 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
93670
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1700 circa
Size:
18 x 12 inches
Condition:
Good
Stock#:
103404
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1680 circa
Size:
22.5 x 19 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
94824
Place/Date:
Augsburg / 1704
Size:
6 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
94903
Place/Date:
Augsburg, Germany / 1760 circa
Size:
8 x 6 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
99761
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1672 (1695)
Size:
21 x 16 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
72770
Place/Date:
Rome / 1687
Size:
21 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
75925
Place/Date:
Paris / 1669
Size:
22 x 16 inches
Condition:
Good
Stock#:
89035
Place/Date:
Munich / 1699
Size:
14 x 9 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
86101
Place/Date:
Dordecht / 1682 circa
Size:
18 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
95286
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1720 circa
Size:
17.5 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
64528
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1720
Size:
17.5 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
99254
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1641
Size:
21.5 x 18.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
102949
Place/Date:
London / 1732
Size:
8 x 11 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
94597
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1715 circa
Size:
18.5 x 12 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
95785
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1650
Size:
21.5 x 17 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
67426
Place/Date:
Nurmeberg (?) / 1679
Size:
3.5 x 6 inches Including Text
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
93289
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1692
Size:
3 x 6 inches Including Text
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
91132
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1662 circa
Size:
21.5 x 16 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
62838
Place/Date:
London / 1672 circa
Size:
21 x 17 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
47376
Place/Date:
London / 1719
Size:
22 x 19 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
51151
Place/Date:
London / 1730
Size:
11.5 x 6 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
81561

Archived

Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1700 circa
Size:
18.5 x 16 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
72623
Place/Date:
London / 1730 circa
Size:
10.5 x 8 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74691
Place/Date:
Paris / 1683
Size:
4 x 6 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
69682
Place/Date:
Paris / 1683
Size:
4 x 6 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
63850
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1686
Size:
4 x 6 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
65305
Place/Date:
Paris / 1683
Size:
4 x 6.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76004
Place/Date:
Paris / 1683
Size:
4.5 x 6 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
82551
Place/Date:
Paris / 1683
Size:
4 x 6 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
84643
Place/Date:
Frankfurt / 1686
Size:
4 x 6 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
85019
Place/Date:
Paris / 1663 (1666)
Size:
17 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
70646
Place/Date:
Paris / 1663
Size:
16 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
75884
Place/Date:
n.p. / 1700
Size:
6.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
70283
Place/Date:
Paris / 1700 circa
Size:
7 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
83229
Place/Date:
Paris / 1650 circa
Size:
8 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
84707
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1700 circa
Size:
23 x 20 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
84365
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1648
Size:
19 x 12.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
8643
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1648
Size:
18.5 x 12.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
62089
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1700
Size:
18.5 x 16 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
95145
Place/Date:
London / 1719
Size:
12 x 7 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
88622
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1700
Size:
18 x 12 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
81265
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1680 circa
Size:
18 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
91198
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1682 circa
Size:
18 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
98426
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1682
Size:
18 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
98439
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1704 circa
Size:
18 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
83951