John Mitchell. A Map of the
British and French Dominions in North America with Roads, Distances, Limits and
Extend of the Settlements. 1755.
Hand colored. [1st edition, 3rd state]
This is a
large detailed map of North America from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico, and
west to the Missouri River. It is the earliest and best large scale survey of
American and British colonies, and described by the authority, Colonel Martin of
the library of Congress, as “Without serious doubt… the most important map in
American history.” Mitchell’s map was present in the House of Commons during the
debates regarding the Quebec Act of 1774. It was the only comprehensive map of
the theater of War during the American Revolution and was the authoritative
cartographical document referred to during the negotiations of peace in Paris in
1782 and 1783. Benjamin Franklin recalled just before his death, in a letter to
Thomas Jefferson, “ I now can assure that I am perfectly clear in the
remembrance that the map we used in tracing the Boundary was brought to the
Treaty by the Commissioners from England, and that it was the same that was
published by Mitchell 20 years before.” In 1796 John Adams wrote to James
Sullivan that “Mitchell’s map was the only one, which the ministers
plenipotentiary of the United States and the ministers plenipotentiary of Great
Britain made use of in their conferences and discussions relative the boundaries
of the United States, in their negotiations of peace in 1783, and of the
provisional articles of the 30th November, 1782. Upon that map, and that only,
were those boundaries delineated.” Mitchell’s map was hung in the Halls of
Congress in 1802. It was used for the purpose of determining land grants in the
Ohio and Mississippi Valleys; received official status in the September 29,
1782, Convention between the United States and Great Britain; served as an
authoritative document during the Webster-Asburton Treaty of 1842. It was used
in 1927 concerning the Canada-Labrador boundary case; the 1926
Wisconsin-Michigan boundary case; the 1926-27 Great Lakes Level case; and the
1932 New Jersey-Delaware boundary case.
Mitchell, a doctor and botanist of some repute, published his map in 1755 in
order to stimulate interest among the British authorities regarding the
protection and expansion of British interest in North America. Mitchell saw the
expansion of French claims throughout the Mississippi and Ohio River Valley as a
direct threat to the welfare of the British Empire. With his map, he published
an unsigned pamphlet entitled, The Contest in America between Great Britain and
France by an Impartial Hand.
The compilation of the map began in 1750, greatly aided by Mitchell’s close
association with George Dunk, Earl of Halifax. The Earl, to whom the map is
dedicated, provided Mitchell with access to voluminous manuscript and printed
material collected by the British Board of Trade and the British Admiralty. The
astonishing result was an overwhelming improvement in the depiction of natural
and human geography of the American continent. Numerous and interesting printed
legends add further to historical value of the printed map.