United States

Antique Maps of the United States of America

This category brings together original antique maps of the United States of America, spanning the full period of European and American cartographic engagement with North America from the 16th century through to the 19th. These works document the evolving geographic understanding of a continent transformed over four centuries from the edge of the known world into one of the most thoroughly surveyed territories on Earth.

The earliest antique maps of North America reflect the period of initial European exploration and colonial establishment. Spanish, French, Dutch and English cartographers each produced maps that incorporated the latest geographic intelligence from their national expeditions, and the great European publishing houses — Ortelius, Mercator, Hondius, Blaeu and Jansson — issued maps of the continent that combined factual reporting with the decorative conventions of the golden age of cartography. These maps, with their elaborate cartouches, sea creatures and figurative embellishment, represent the period in which geographic knowledge and artistic ambition were most productively combined.

The 17th and 18th centuries saw progressive clarification of the North American coastline, interior river systems and mountain geography as French exploration of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, British settlement of the eastern seaboard and Spanish penetration of the southwest added to the accumulated body of cartographic knowledge. Maps of individual colonies, regions and the continent as a whole proliferated, reflecting the political and commercial significance of North America for the competing European powers.

The establishment of American independence in 1783 inaugurated a new era of national cartographic production. American publishers, surveyors and geographers produced maps of the expanding nation, documenting state boundaries, frontier territories, the routes of westward migration and the progressive incorporation of new states into the Union. These 19th-century antique maps of the United States capture a country in the process of defining itself geographically, politically and economically.

Antique maps of the United States are among the most actively collected subjects in American cartographic history, sought by collectors for their historical associations, regional specificity and the decorative quality of the finest early examples.