|
||
|
|
|
|
This compact German map of eastern North America illustrates the territorial claims of Britain and France, as understood from a mid-18th-century European perspective. Originally engraved by Johann Georg Schreiber and published in his Atlas selectus beginning in the 1740s, the map continued to be reissued from the same plate for decades by his successors. This example represents a later state, printed after 1782 by Johann Christian Schreiber.
The British seaboard colonies are shown in yellow and keyed at lower right, while French Louisiana, in green, stretches from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. A network of French trading posts, including Fort Pontchartrain, Fort Chartres, and Fort Frederic, marks France’s inland presence. Though the map's geography was becoming increasingly outdated by the 1780s, it continued to reflect the pre-Seven Years’ War balance of power, with the Mississippi River serving as the conceptual boundary between British and French dominions.
States
We are aware of two distinct states of the map and there is likely a third. The earliest state probably bore the imprint of Johann Georg Schreiber himself. This was followed by a version naming his widow, reading “bey Joh. George Schreibers See Wittib,” which reflects the period after Schreiber’s death in 1750 when the firm was managed by Maria Dorothea Schreiber. The present example is the later state, issued after her death in 1782, with the imprint changed to “Joh. Christ. Schreiber.” Johann Christian Schreiber, his nephew, took over the business at that time. In addition to the revised imprint, this state also omits an engraved label that originally appeared beneath the neat line and read “Das streitige Theil zwischen Engelland und Franckreich” (The disputed part between England and France).
