Add it to the Wishlist: 1766 Map Showing Russian Discoveries of the West Coast of North America

At the time of my writing this post, I am planning a work-trip to Portland, Oregon. Naturally this got me thinking about maps of the region and I decided to see if I could find another west-coast of North America map to add to my virtual wishlist. I got some great ideas from a tweet from Vetus Carta (@rare_maps), an online, Ottawa-based, antique map dealer (as always, no affiliation).

Anyway, the tweet led me to the Vetus Carta site where this gorgeous 1766 of eastern Russia and western North America is on sale.

The image above is from Barry Lawrence Ruderman, where the image is available to zoom into in high-quality (and where it's on sale as well). Vetus Carta, though, provides an impressively detailed overview of the map, which, by the way, is properly titled Nouvelle Carte Des Decouvertes Faites par Des Vaisseaux Russiens Aux Cotes Inconnues De L'Amerique Septentrionale Avec Les Pais Adiacents ('New Map of Discoveries Made by Russian Vessels on the Unknown Coasts of North America with Adjacent Countries') published in Amsterdam in 1758 by Gerhard Friedrich Müller.

Anyone interested in the finer details of the map's history should visit the Vetus Carta site. From my perspective, one of the most important points of this history is that this map not only went on to inspire many other, contemporary map-makers, but that it helped to debunk some of the popular, though incorrect thinking about the region at the time. It was a groundbreaking map in that it was more scientific than other maps of the region that were already available.

Vetus Carta goes on to note some of the inaccuracies in this map, which, again, was more accurate than most of what was already out there: first, it shows a “River of the West” at the “entrance discovered by Martin d’Aguilar in 1609.” This river, which supposedly ran from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific, is a figment of someones imagination. There is also a supposed entrance into the continent that the map-maker says was discovered by Juan de Fuca in 1576, this is incorrect as well. There's also the incorrect shape of Alaska.

From my perspective, as a layperson who really enjoys these antique maps, there are some different things that have caused me to add it to my wishlist other than its historic significance.

I love the blanks on this map. Its amazing to think of a time when people looked at vast spaces of the world and said "we have no idea what's there". Of course, someone knew what was there, but the Russians who provided the information for this map, did not, and so we're left with an enormously large void whose contents could have been anything. For similar reasons, I love the inaccuracies in northern Quebec and around Hudson's Bay.

I also love the contrast in this map between the detailed Russian territory which appears to be a place that was known to European map makers on the one hand, and the supposed emptiness of North America on the other. The places seem so tantalizingly close to one another, and yet, the people living in the east, who knew their own lands, knew nothing of the west or the people in it.

Some of the annotations on this map are also wonderful. The indications of the voyages of Russian explorers are fascinating historic details, but comments like the one above are just great. It reads: 'Land about which we have claims from residents of Kamchatka, some of whom say that it can be seen from Bering Island'. This is just more reinforcement of how close the land of the map-maker is to the land about which he knows nothing, and how tempting such a place may be for an explorer.

This is really a great map, and one that I'd love to have if I could ever afford such wonderful things. Until then, I can enjoy it as part of my virtual wish-list collection.

Add it to the Wishlist: Four Gorgeous 1757 Bellin Antique Maps of Canada - Hudsons Bay, St Lawrence River, Quebec City

I'm not a person with much money, so it's easy for me to decide that I can't afford a map I love. If I had the disposable income though, boy would I love this set of four, 18th century maps of Canada on sale by Classical Images, of Melbourne, Australia.

Here there are, four beautiful Bellin maps. I'll present them and what I love about them one at a time.

There's a lot to love about this map of Hudson's Bay. It's an attractive example, the map itself is nice to look at, it has a beautiful cartouche and nice geographic features, like mountains. It's also wonderful in that it seems to have totally made up islands, like "Isle de Bonne Fortune, which does not correspond with anything modern I can find. It also gets the shape of the Bay quite wrong (though James Bay looks pretty good), and Quebec seems to have no Ungava bay in its far north. I also love the note on the far left, in French, about the lands being 'entirely unknown' and a similar annotation at 65 north and 65 west of the 'strait without a name'.



At the time this map of the upper St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario was made, there was considerable settlement in the colony of New France between the downstream city of Quebec and Montreal. For some reason, from this map, you'd hardly know it. Montreal is on the map, but as an island. There's not much there to speak of a settlement, or the importance of the settlement. The names of rivers appear to be quite detailed--perhaps because rivers were truly the highways of the time--and a number of forts and small settlements are indicated. The drawings of the mountains add to the attractiveness of the map, but points which probably should have been emphasized, are omitted.

Here's the downstream portion of the St. Lawrence. Another attractive map with surprising accurate naming of places like rivers, islands and mountains, but little in the way of cities and towns. A detail of this one, that appears in the others as well, is the identification of the longitude being from Paris, not Greenwich.

This last one may be my favorite, a view of Quebec City, from 1757 during the Seven Years War and while under French rule, before the "Conquest" by the British. In two years time, a battle at the Plains of Abraham (approximate location indicated on the map below), would dramatically alter the course of North American and Canadian history. This map gives wonderful details about the city and seems to make special note of its fortifications. Indeed, the city was very well defended, and it was a series of gambles and good luck that allowed for British success in their assault on the town. One of the most interesting details shown on the map are the walls of the city. Today, Quebec City is the oldest walled city north of Mexico City whose walls still exist.

Approximate location of the British landings at the Plains of Abraham

At the time that these maps of Canada were published, the Seven Years War was already ongoing. It's an amazing thought to imagine the possibility of British, or French officers studying any of these maps to plot strategies, attacks or routes. These maps may not have been practical for military purposes, but at a time when perhaps little was known about these places by rival powers, maps like this may have been the key to successful campaigns.