JEFFERYS, Thomas.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The American Atlas: First edition of this celebrated atlas, "the chief publication used by English and American officers during the American Revolution" (Karpinski) and "one of the most authoritative and comprehensive atlases of America" (Ristow), with large maps of 11 of the 13 colonies, and of French Canada.As Geographer to the Prince of Wales, and subsequently George III, Jefferys had unparalleled access to the latest surveys of the American colonies and "is remembered in particular for some of the most important eighteenth-century maps of the Americas, a series given cohesion and impetus by the preliminary hostilities and eventual outbreak of the Seven Years' War" (ODNB). After Jefferys' death in November 1771, his business passed to Robert Sayer and John Bennett, who, in 1775, issued all of Jefferys' separately issued maps in atlas form for the first time, under the umbrella title The American Atlas. This is considered to be the most important eighteenth-century atlas for America, described by Walter Ristow as "a geographical description of the whole continent of America, as portrayed in the best available maps in the latter half of the eighteenth century... as a major cartographic reference work it was, very likely, consulted by American, English, and French civilian administrators and military officers during the Revolution". The geographical knowledge of America gathered here was to have impact not only on the strategy of the War of Independence, but also influenced t

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