Nice example of John Reid's map of South Carolina, the second folio map of the state to appear in a commercial atlas.
The map was engraved by Benjamin Tanner and is drawn largely from Carey's map by Samuel Lewis, issued the prior year.
An excellent topographical map, showing the 8 precincts, boundaries, principal towns and roads. Because of an error in scale, the map is about 15 percent larger than its actual longitude, thus elongating the map north and south. The northwest Georgia boundary is confused and out of shape as the north branch of the Tugaloo (Chattooga) River is swung over where the South Branch (Tallulah River) runs. This pushes the western portion of the state too far west.
John Reid's American Atlas was the second folio sized atlas published in the US. Reid's atlas was originally issued to accompany Winterbotham's Historical, Geographical, Commercial and Philosophical View of the United States. It was originally issued with 20 maps, which were engraved by Benjamin Tanner (9), David Martin (5), D. Anderson (2), John Scoles and John Roberts. Two of the maps are without credits. Ellicott's plan of Washington D.C. was added to a few examples.
Manuscript Transcription
The Site of Augusta is perhaps the most delightful and eligible of any in Georgia for a City. An extensive level plain on the banks of a fine navigable river which has its numerous sources in the Cherokee mountains, a fruitful and temperate region, where after roving and winding about their fertile heights they meander through a fertile hilly country and one after another combine in forming the Turgilo and Broad Rivers and then the famous Savanna River; there they continue near a hundred miles more, following its meanders and falls over the Cataracts at Augusta which cross the river at the upper end of the town... Bartrams Travels page 314.
[At Silver Bluff] See Bartrams Travels page 312
Following Mathew Carey’s publication of the American Atlas in 1795, the second large format atlas published in America was produced by John Reid of New York in 1796. The project began as an atlas to accompany William Winterbotham’s An Historical, Geographical, Commercial and Philosophical View of the United States, but was also sold separately under the title The American Atlas.
Reid’s atlas included 20 maps. In addition, John Russell’s plan of Washington, D.C. is also bound into some copies of the Atlas. Reid’s atlas was a collaborative work, with 9 of the maps engraved by Benjamin Tanner, 5 by David Martin, two by D. Anderson and one each by John Scoles and John Roberts. Two of the maps do not include engraving credits. Each of the engravers was probably working in New York (including Tanner, who had not yet relocated to Philadelphia). According to the various entries for the maps in Wheat & Brun, the cartographic content of the maps is drawn largely from Carey’s first atlas of 1795.