Hutchins, Thomas

Estimate

50,000 - 70,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

A New Map of the Western Parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina; Comprehending the River Ohio, and all the Rivers, which fall into it; Part of the River Mississippi, the Whole of the Illinois River, Lake Erie; Part of the Lakes Huron, Michigan &c. And all the Country bordering on these Lakes and Rivers. London: Thomas Hutchins, 1778
paper, ink

Engraved folding map (45 x 36 1/2 in.; 1144 x 926 mm), printed on four sheets, dissected into 32 sections and mounted on linen, contemporary outline handcoloring, engraved by T. Cheevers, a few engraved "Remarks" at bottom touting the natural resources of the area depicted. PROVENANCE: The Newberry Library (stamps on linen verso; Sotheby's New York, 1 November 1993, lot 96, sold to augment the permanent book acquisition funds of the Newberry Library)

Handsomely framed with UVIII Plexiglass. Some light marginal soiling, a few minor surface abrasions.

Literature

Brown 51; Degrees of Latitude 49; Ristow p 38-39; Rumsey 5044; Streeter sale 3:1300

Catalogue Note

"BY FAR THE BEST MAP OF THE WEST PRINTED TO THAT TIME," LARGELY BASED ON HUTCHINS'S OWN EXPLORATIONS OF THE AREA WEST OF THE ALLEGHENY MOUNTAINS (Streeter). "In addition to providing the first significant depiction of Trans-Appalachia, Hutchins included descriptions of the characteristics of the soil in various areas, places suitable for farming, the locations of meadowlands, timber, swamps, and deposits of salt, coal, petroleum, and lead. Buffalo hunting grounds were also indicated. Hutchins's map was one of only a few to show Vandalia, here 'Indiana,' proposed as the fourteenth colony during the late 1760s. Vandalia would have encompassed most of present day West Virginia and Kentucky" (Degrees of Latitude). The map was a separately published accompaniment to Hutchins's Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina (London, 1778).