colonial news

New England magnified to show differing territories of Pennsylvania (spelled Pensilvania), New York, New Hampshire, and Maine

Map of the Month: January 2023

Happy New Year! Our January Map of the Month is this map titled “North America Drawn from the Latest and Best Authorities” that is believed to be from the 1780s. It was made by Thomas Kitchin, an English cartographer and engraver, and displays the entirety of the North American continent as had been...

Historic map of Africa north of the equator from the 1919 “Map of Africa to Illustrate the Progress of Surveys and Explorations”. Regions are colored red or blue to denote different topographic surveys with several unshaded regions representing areas of the Sahara and Kalahari Desert which were unsurveyed. Small black text labels towns or cities, while large bold text denotes location names. Surrounding Africa is the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the South Atlantic Ocean.

Map of the Month: November 2022

Our November Map of the Month is this 1919 British War Office map titled “Map of Africa to Illustrate the Progress of Surveys and Explorations”. Originally published in 1914 and updated in this edition, it depicts the entirety of the African continent with data on the topographic surveys that had be...

Reproduction of historic map showing city plans for New Orleans, includes illustrated Mississippi River and legend of significant places. A central portion of the city is magnified to show the markers including the church, jail, and guardhouse.

Map of the Month: August 2022

Our August Map of the Month is this 1964 reproduction of a 1764 map titled “Plan de la Nouvelle Orleans”. It depicts the land that now makes up New Orleans' French Quarter as it existed over 250 years ago, just before Louisiana was ceded to Spain. It includes a legend marking places of interest such...

Historic map depicting Northern Mexico, Baja California, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana Territory

Map of the Month: December 2021

Our December Map of the Month is this French map titled “New Mexico, with the Northern Part of Old, Or New Spain”. Among the oldest maps in our collection, this map was made by Rigobert Bonne and was published in 1780 as part of Guillaume-Thomas Raynal’s famous Atlas de Toutes Les Parties Connues du...