Evans, Lewis:

$120,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

A GENERAL MAP OF THE MIDDLE BRITISH COLONIES, IN AMERICA; VIZ VIRGINIA, MARILAND, DELAWARE, PENSILVANIA, NEW-JERSEY, NEW-YORK, CONNECTICUT, AND RHODE ISLAND: OF AQUANISHUONIGY, THE COUNTRY OF THE ... One of the most important maps of the British colonies done prior to Independence, a landmark in American cartography and an important Franklin printing: this example an extraordinary survival printed on silk for presentation.Lewis Evans' map, titled "A General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America," shows the east coast of North America from Montreal and New England to the northern border of North Carolina, and also includes the Ohio valley in the west. The Evans map appeared in 1755, the same year as John Mitchell's famous map, with Evans drawing from his original surveys and Fry and Jefferson's 1753 map of Virginia. Evans's map acknowledges French claims to all lands northwest of St. Lawrence Fort, resulting in criticism from New York, notably the New York Mercury. Despite the controversy, Evans's work was very popular (there were eighteen editions between 1755 and 1814), and was famously used by General Braddock during the French and Indian War. The present example is an example of the finished second state of the map, with the addition of the name "The Lakes Cataraqui" above Lake Ontario.Significantly, the present map is found here printed on gold silk. Very few such examples have survived. Contemporary advertisements do not offer the map on silk, suggesting that suc

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