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Description

"Without Serious Doubt . . . The Most Important Map In American History" (Lawrence Martin, Chief, Library of Congress Map Division, 1924-1946)

The earliest obtainable edition of John Mitchell's monumental map of North America, widely regarded as the single most important and influential map in American history.

First issued in 1755, Mitchell's map holds a special place in American history as both a visual artifact which shaped American history and a central document in the treaties which defined the boundaries in the northern part of North America for the next 200+ years. 

The present example is the extremely rare first edition, second state of the map, with the corrected spelling of Andrew Millar's name and street address (spelled wrong in the first state), but with two towns named "Leicester" and no "Worchester," corrected in state 3 (also 1755), making this edition essentially the second proof state of the map.  

Of note, this particular example includes two unusual color features not present on most examples of the map.

  • New York-New Jersey Boundary Dispute:  The map shows the northern part of the colony of New Jersey as part of New York.  This reflects the ongoing New York – New Jersey Line War, which included a series of skirmishes and raids that took place for over half a century between 1701 and 1765 at the disputed border between two American colonies, the Province of New York and the Province of New Jersey.   The last fight broke out in 1765, when the Jerseyans attempted to capture the leaders of the New York faction. Because the fight took place on the Sabbath, neither side used weapons. The New York leaders were captured and kept briefly in the Sussex County jail.  The conflict was settled in 1769 when the King of Great Britain signed a royal commission of October 7, 1769, which appointed commissioners to establish what would become the permanent and final border that runs southeast from the Tri-States Monument at the confluence of the Delaware and Neversink Rivers near Port Jervis to the Hudson River. The New York and New Jersey legislatures ratified the compromise in 1772, and the King approved it on September  1, 1773.
  • Lord Fairfax Limits Extending to the Rappahannock River:  The Fairfax Line was a surveyor's line run in 1746 to establish the limits of the "Northern Neck land grant" (also known as the "Fairfax Grant") in colonial Virginia. The land grant dates to 1649, encompassing all lands bounded by the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, inherited by Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781). By that time the question of the boundaries of the designated lands had also become highly contentious. In 1745, it was decided that a line between the sources of the North Branch Potomac River and the Rappahannock River would constitute the western limit of Lord Fairfax's lands. The Newberry Library example of the map is the only example we have seen to illustrate the line in color.

Map Overview

Mitchell's Map of the British and French Dominions in North America . . . is widely regarded as the most important map in American History. Prepared on the eve of the French & Indian War, it was the second large format map of North America printed by the British, and included the best up to date information of the region. Over the next 200 years, it would play a significant role in the resolution of every significant boundary dispute involving the northern border of the then British Colonies, and later the United States. It was also the map-of-record at the birth of the United States and continued in this role through the early life of the country.

As noted by Benjamin Franklin in his April 9, 1790 letter to Thomas Jefferson, Mitchell's map was the central reference point in negotiating boundaries between the Britain and the newly independent United States under the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

I can now assure you that I am perfectly clear in the Remembrance that the Map we used in tracing the Boundary was brought to the Treaty by the Commissioners of England, and that it was the same that was published by Mitchell about 20 years before."

Thomas Jefferson recommended that Nicholas King use Mitchell's map in preparing a new map for Meriwether Lewis prior to the Lewis & Clark expedition, saying: "it was made with great care we know from what is laid down in those western parts with which we have lately become acquainted."

 Lawrence Martin, the second chief of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division provided the following partial list of important uses of Mitchell's map: 

1.  [Mitchell's map] is thought to have been in use in the British House of Commons during the debate on the Quebec Act of 1774
2.  It is known to have hung in the halls of Congress in 1802 and several times subsequently.
3.  It was used ... in the discussions of British land grants in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and in scores of controversies involving the boundary lines existing at the time of its publication.
4.  Great Britain and the United States agreed to its official status in the Convention of September 29, 1827....
5.  It exerted substantial influence in the negotiation and ratification of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842,.
6. Serious argument was based upon it by Great Britain before the Court of Arbitration at The Hague in 1910 in connection with the North Atlantic Coast Fisheries Arbitration.
7.  It was submitted in evidence before the Law Lords of the British Privy Council in 1926 in the appeal of Price Brothers & Company, Limited, from a judgment of the supreme court of Canada, and in 1926-27 in the Canada-Newfoundland (Labrador) boundary case.
8.  It was used as evidence before the Supreme Court of the United States in the Wisconsin-Michigan boundary case, in 1926-27 in the Great Lakes level case, and in 1932 in the New Jersey-Delaware boundary case."
[numbering and paragraph breaks added]

John Mitchell

John Mitchell (1711-1768), a respected British physician, botanist, chemist, biologist, and surveyor, lived for a time in Virginia, but returned to England in 1746, where he remained until his death. Mitchell initially conceived of his map of North America in order to present the British public with a single large format image of all the colonies, in order to illustrate the extent of the French threat to the British claims in North America. Mitchell completed his first draft of the map in 1750. However, because Mitchell was limited to publicly available sources of information, this initial effort was rather crude, even in Mitchell's own opinion. As word of Mitchell's work spread, the Board of Trade and Plantations retained Mitchell to make a new map, using the official manuscript and printed maps and reports in the Board's possession, including maps by Fry and Jefferson, Christopher Gist, George Washington, John Barnwell, and others. The Board also instructed all colonial governors to send detailed maps and boundary information for Mitchell's use.

Publication History

Mitchell's map was first published by Andrew Millar in 1755, one year before the start of the French & Indian War (Seven Years War). The map is decidedly pro-English in its interpretation of the various boundaries and geographical information depicted on the map, as would be expected for what amounted to thinly British propaganda. In addition to the geographical detail shown on the map, Mitchell included many annotations describing the extent of British and French settlements. He also submitted a report to the Board in 1752, listing the French encroachments and his ideas to encourage British settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, as a means of combating French influence in the region. Mitchell is also the likely author of The Contest in America Between Great Britain and France by an Impartial Hand (1756), which addresses the same topic.

The first edition of the map was quickly followed by a second edition in 1757, which adds two large blocks of text in the Atlantic Ocean, providing Mitchell's data sources and an account of how he compiled the numerous provincial maps to create this map. After Mitchell's death in 1768, the plates were purchased by Jefferys & Faden, who revised the map and issued a third edition in 1773-74. Faden published a fourth edition in 1775, with the title changed to A Map of the British Colonies in North America ....

The Map

Mitchell's map shows the British Colonial claims of Virginia, both Carolinas, and Georgia extending beyond the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean.

In the West, Mitchell's treatment of the lower Missouri is a vast improvement over earlier maps. Regarding the source of the Missouri, Mitchell notes "Missouri river is reckoned to run westward to the Mountains of New Mexico, as far as the Ohio does eastward," reflecting his belief in symmetrical geography. Mitchell correctly shows the northern branch of the Missouri to be the main branch of the river, although his estimate of the latitude of the river's source is inaccurate. Nonetheless, the information Mitchell's map provided led Meriwether Lewis up the Marias River to determine the northern reaches of the Missouri River basin. 

Ristow noted twenty-one variant states and editions of the map appeared between 1755 and 1781 (7 English; 2 Dutch (Covens & Mortier); 10 French (Le Rouge) and 2 Italian (Zatta)) John Jay used a copy of the third edition during the negotiations of what would become the Treaty of Paris (1783).

Map States

The present example is the rare second proof state of the first edition (State 2 below), pre-dating the correction of one of the two appearances of the town of Leicester (shown twice in this state of the map) to Worcester, but retaining the 1755 imprint date. 

  • State 1 (1755):  Publisher's name spelled "Miller" (not Millar).  Publisher's street name spelled "Katherine" (not Katharine).
  • State 2 (1755):  Publisher's name correctly spelled Millar.  Publisher's street name corrected spelled Katharine.
  • State 3 (1755):  First two states includes the town name Leicester in Massachusetts twice.  This state corrects on of the Leicester's to Worcester.
  • State 4 (1755-1757):  Text panels in the Atlantic added.  Scale of miles now above the cartouche.
  • State 5 (circa 1773):  Millar's name deleted.  Jefferys and Faden imprint added.
  • State 6 (circa 1774):  Printed boundary added in the middle of Lake Ontario.
  • State 7 (circa 1775):  Title changed to "A Map of the British Colonies in North America . . . "

Rarity

All states of the Mitchell are rare on the market.   Prior to this example, which was acquired in 2019, there has not been a recorded example of the second state of the map at auction for over 30 years.  We offered an example of the map for sale in 2011.

Condition Description
8 sheets joined. The sheets have lightly cleaned and rejoined, with color retouched. At the center of the right margin, there is an area of expert restoration of a very small amount of loss, including a bit in the lines in the blank sea, which is almost invisible without very close inspection. Several small areas, primarily in the bank margin, have been reinforced.
Reference
Pritchard & Taliaferro, Degrees of Latitude 33 (state 2); Cumming 293; Stevens and Tree 54; Suarez, Shedding the Veil 56. Ristow, A La Carte, John Mitchell's Map of the British and French Dominions in North America, pp 102-113.