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Description

A rare separately published map of the region around Virginia and Maryland. The detail on this map is extensive, and several additional insets further add to the interest of the map. The map shows counties, settlements, geomorphological features, soundings and much more as well as including many annotations.

The main map stretches from the Cumberland Gap in the southwest to New York City in the northeast, spanning a large area and comprising four entire states and parts of several others. The insets of the Chesapeake and Washington, D. C. areas provide more detail about the parts of the map the most densely populated. In these insets, the level of detail and information is much higher, even including the date in which various counties were formed. Smith shows the layout of Forts McHenry and Monroe, providing notes about their location and even, for Fort Monroe, their cost to build.

This area would soon become a hotly contested area during the Civil War. One must wonder if Smith already has this in mind, as he chooses to portray two forts in inset maps as well as including the area around Manassas in the map of Washington, D. C.

Rumsey dates this map to 1850, while Levanthal dates this to 1864. The absence of Civil War annotations despite extensive notes on other wars fought in this area that saw heavy conflict suggests this predates 1861, supported by the lack of a separate West Virginia.

Condition Description
Central vertical and horizontal folds archivally reinforced on verso.