The Artisanal Map, 1750–1815

During the colonial and revolutionary periods, American maps emerged from a medley of artisanal workshops that were steeped in the art of pictorial printmaking. Defined by the dual status of intellectual originality and material singularity, the maps reflected the surveyor’s geodetic data, the mapmaker’s drawing and engraving skills, the printer’s work habits, and the papermaker’s competence. Addressing the preconsumer life of maps made by Lewis Evans, John Mitchell, Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, Nicholas Scull, and Samuel Lewis, this chapter explains the design and look of early American-made maps as they developed from an idea and a draft into a raw print and a preconsumer artifact. Because artisanal maps were by and large considered fair use objects, plagiarized at random, they led a double life of being at once rare original imprints and mass-produced copies.