Nicholas Scull. Map of the improved Part of the Province of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: 1759

SCULL, NICHOLAS

MAP OF THE IMPROVED PART OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA. PHILADELPHIA: ENGRAVED BY JAS. TURNER AND PRINTED BY JOHN DAVIS FOR THE AUTHOR; PUBLISHED & SOLD BY THE AUTHOR, NICHOLAS SCULL, 1 JANUARY 1759

Large copperplate engraved map on joined sheets (60 x 30 3/4 in.; 153 x 78 cm). with elaborate cartouche dedication to the Penn brothers. One faint spot, a superior example. Matted and framed.

This is the first large-scale map of Pennsylvania and one of the most important eighteenth-century maps engraved in what is now the United States (Streeter)

The mapmaker, Nicholas Scull (1700-1762), was Surveyor General from 1748 to 1761, successor to General Benjamin Eastburn, and was the first member of a North American family to engage in mapmaking as a business. A very attractive copy, in the first state, before the additions of text at Nelson’s Ferry and a road from Carlisle east to Pine Fort. Scarce.

LITERATURE:

Evans 8489; Streeter sale 2:965; Wheat & Brun 422