Americas

Antique hydrographic maps of the Americas provide detailed, historic views of the Atlantic, Pacific, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and associated coastal waters that were essential to early navigation, trade, and exploration. These original nautical charts document soundings, coastal features, reef systems, harbour entrances, and key maritime routes that guided European and indigenous seafarers alike.

Important contributors to American hydrographic charting include Alexander Dalrymple, whose work helped establish early British Admiralty soundings; Jan van Keulen and the Dutch school of marine atlas makers; Herman Moll and Thomas Jefferys, who published influential Atlantic and Caribbean charts; and later institutions such as the British Admiralty Hydrographic Office and early American surveyors who helped map the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf approaches. These maps often include compass roses, depth soundings, sailing directions, and annotated coastal hazards that were indispensable to early mariners.

Collectors prize these historic nautical charts for both their technical detail and their connection to pivotal periods of maritime history — including Spanish galleon routes, colonial trade, and transatlantic crossings. As both navigational tools and works of cartographic art, antique hydrographic maps of the Americas stand as valuable records of how the New World’s coasts and seas were first charted and understood.