Virginia, / Maryland, / Pennsilvania, / East & West / New Jersey. / Sold by Jno Mount & Thos Page / Tower Hill., 1689-1743

Item

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: This is a collection of 48 maps and related images, the gift of Henry and Kaye Spalding, Jr., Class of 1960. The maps focus on the Chespeake Bay, the body of water that enabled the settlement and development of the state of Virginia. They depict the area between the years of 1590 and 1860, and are drawn by European mapmakers and, as evidenced in later works, those residing in the United States of America.

Dates

1689-1743

Creator

Thornton, John (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research; access requires at least 48 hours advance notice. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access will require additional advanced notice. Copies of digital files will be provided for use upon request.

Extent

From the Collection: 90.8 Megabytes (59 total images. Resized digital scans of the Spalding Collection maps are available through the Hampden-Sydney Archives & Special Collections' Digital Repository.)

From the Collection: 48 Sheets (The original maps in the Henry and Kaye Spalding Collection are framed and displayed throughout the fourth floor of Bortz Library.)

Language of Materials

From the Collection: Romance languages

From the Collection: Germanic languages

Additional Description

Physical Description

London; Engraved on two plates and oriented with north to the right, this was the first published chart of the Chesapeake Bay with enough specific information to use for navigation. First appearing in The English Pilot: The Fourth Book (1689), the chart covers the area from Staten Island to "Corotuck" Inlet, west to Charles City and New Kent counties, and just beyond Jamestown and the Eastern Shore. Philadelphia, established in 1683, appears perhaps because Thornton was involved in publishing the first map of the city in that year. The 1673 Herrman map, on which Thornton based his chart, had been sold by John Seller, determined to issue a great English sea atlas. An engraver as well as a cartographer, Thornton was part of the publishing effort for the second edition of The English Pilot in 1677. He had previously worked as hydrographer and chartmaker for the East India Company and Hudson's Bay Company. The chart was in use for more than one hundred years. This is the second state of a new plate first engraved in 1743. --From This New Founde Lande: The Henry & Kaye Spalding Map Collection at Hampden-Sydney College, 2008.