Special Collections at The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon
PO Box 3600Mount Vernon, VA 22121
Telephone: 703-799-3600
URL: http://archives.mountvernon.org
Alison Wells, Special Collections Archivist
Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research during scheduled appointments. Researchers must complete the Washington Library's Special Collections and Archives Registration Form before access is provided. The library reserves the right to restrict access to certain items for preservation purposes.
Preferred Citation
[Name and date of item], Paul Stevens collection of Maps, [Folder], Special Collections, The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon [hereafter Washington Library], Mount Vernon,
Biographical / Historical
Paul Schott Stevens donated the collection of maps to the Washington Library in 2020.
Scope and Contents
The collection contains 26 maps of the New World, dating 1541-1778, which illustrate the progression of European geographic knowledge about Virginia and North America from the 16th through the 18th centuries
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically and filed according to size.
Significant Persons Associated With the Collection
- Anville, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d', 1697-1782
- Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638
- Briggs, Henry, 1561-1630
- Browne, Christopher, active 1684-1712
- Bry, Theodor de, 1528-1598
- Buache, Philippe, 1700-1773
- Drake, Francis, approximately 1540-1596
- Elstracke, Renold, active 1590-1630
- Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
- Fries, Lorenz, approximately 1490-1531
- Fry, Joshua, approximately 1700-1754
- Gryp, Dirck
- Hall, Ralph, active 1637
- Harriot, Thomas, 1560-1621
- Hole, William, -1624
- Hondius, Jodocus, 1563-1612
- Jefferson, Peter, 1708-1757
- Kitchin, Thomas, 1718-1784
- L'Isle, Guillaume de, 1675-1726
- Laet, Joannes de, 1581-1649
- Le Rouge, Georges-Louis
- Moll, Herman, -1732
- Ortelius, Abraham, 1527-1598
- Poupard, James
- Robert de Vaugondy, Didier, 1723-1786
- Robert de Vaugondy, Gilles, 1688-1766
- Salmon, Thomas, 1679-1767
- Sartine, Antoine de, comte d'Alby, 1729-1801
- Sayer, Robert, 1725-1794
- Smith, Anthony, pilot of St. Marys
- Smith, John, 1580-1631
- White, John, active 1585-1593
Significant Places Associated With the Collection
- America
- Atlantic Ocean
- Caribbean Sea
- Central America
- Chesapeake Bay (Md. and Va.)
- Cuba
- Delaware
- East (U.S.)
- Florida
- Georgia
- Gulf Coast (U.S.)
- Gulf Stream
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Mexico
- Mexico, Gulf of
- Mississippi River Valley
- New Jersey
- North America
- North Atlantic Ocean
- North Carolina
- Pennsylvania
- South America
- South Atlantic States
- South Carolina
- South Pacific Ocean
- Southern States
- United States
- Virginia
- West Indies
Container List
Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin and American Philosophical Society, James Poupard, Sculp., 1786
London : Robert Sayer, 1763
London : London Magazine : T. Kitchin Geog., 1761
London : Christopher Browne, 1689
Frankfurt : John White and Theodore De Bry, 1590
"Theodore De Bry's engraving of John White's manuscript map was the first finely-detailed view of a North American landscape. It depicts English claims to "Virginia," which at the time encompassed both modern Virginia and North Carolina. Created in the wake of the failed English settlement at Roanoke Island, De Bry's color engraving visualizes English understanding of indigenous political communities such as the Secotan, Chawanook, and Weapemeoc peoples. At right, the ships heading into the Chesapeake Bay suggest future pathways for settlement and commerce." -- Mapping the "New World": Highlights from the Paul Schott Stevens Collection
Antwerp : Abraham Ortelius, 1570
Paris : Le Rouge, Smith, 1778
"Produced for the French Navy, the rare chart displayed here was the best available chart of this region for the time, and was used by all naval forces involved in combat during the American Revolutionary War. The information on this very detailed chart was based primarily on the work of American Anthony Smith, a local Chesapeake Bay pilot of St. Mary's County. The chart was consulted by Admiral de Grasse in his victory over the British off the Chesapeake Capes on September 5, 1781." https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:z603vv10h
Paris : Antoine Sartine, 1778
Amsterdam : Jean Covens and Corneille Mortier, 1758
Paris : Guillaume De L'Isle and Philippe Bauch, 1718
Paris : Giles Robert de Vaugondy, 1755
"Originally published in 1753, the Fry-Jefferson map was the most accurate map of Virginia at that time. This French version was printed at the beginning of the French and Indian War, which began when Governor Robert Dinwiddie ordered George Washington and his Virginia troops to drive the French off British-claimed land. Most of the indigenous names featured in John Smith's map are gone, replaced by Anglo-American settlements." -- Mapping the "New World": Highlights from the Paul Schott Stevens Collection
Paris : Guillaume De L'Isle, 1703
"Europeans had a more precise understanding of North America and the Caribbean by the early 18th century. Guillaume De L'Isle drew on earlier French expeditions into the continental interior to create the first accurate map of the Mississippi River. His use of color falsely implies fixed borders between competing European and indigenous peoples." -- Mapping the "New World": Highlights from the Paul Schott Stevens Collection
Amsterdam or Cologne : Francis Drake, 1596
London: Herman Moll, 1728
Leiden : Joannes De Laet, 1630
London : Thomas Salmon, 1738
Amsterdam : Jodocus Hondius, D.Gryp Sculpt, 1618
Amsterdam : William Janszoon Bleau, D.Gryp Sculpt, 1630
"Thirty years after Martin Waldseemüller printed one of the first maps of the Americas, Lorenz Fries published an updated European perspective on the New World. "Terra Incognita" on Waldseemüller's map has become "Terra Nova" on Fries's. The Castilian flag marks Spanish territorial claims in the Caribbean, while the continent's indigenous people are caricatured as primitive, reflecting common European misperceptions of native cultures." -- Mapping the "New World": Highlights from the Paul Schott Stevens Collection
Strasbourg : Lorenz Fries, 1541
London : John Smith, Robert Vaugondy, printed by James Reeve, 1627
London : Henry Briggs, R. Elstracke Sculpsit, 1625
The first printed map in English to show California as an island, with flat northern coast.
Frankfurt: John Smith, 1627?
"From Theodore de Bry's Grand Voyages, Dreyzehender Theil Americae published by Matheus Merian. This German version of Captain John Smith's map of Virginia depicts the English colony shortly after Jamestown's 1607 founding. Powhatan, the principal chief of the indigenous confederacy that dominated the region, presides in the upper left corner. The rivers command our attention. The English expected to settle the interior by following waterways upstream. In time, tobacco plantations worked by indentured servants and slaves replaced the indigenous settlements that dotted these rivers. The Potomac River is visible just above the "SA" in "Chesapeak Bay."" -- Mapping the "New World": Highlights from the Paul Schott Stevens Collection
London : Ralph Hall, 1636
London : John Smith, William Hole, [1606-1626]
Amsterdam : Jodocus Hondius, 1601?