Object Details
Object Essay
The cartographer was a friend of Thomas Jefferson, and the two men corresponded on many matters. This map reflects Jefferson’s view of the new nation in the short period between the end of the American Revolutionary hostilities and the formulation of the United States Constitution. The states from Pennsylvania to Georgia are defined according to the proprietary origins that set two points on the Atlantic coast and extended borders west to the next ocean. This map indicates that few conceived of progressing beyond the Mississippi River into Spanish lands.
The Northwest Territory is designated as “Contrée cédée aux Etats-Unis.” The map contains an explanatory inset which gives Jefferson’s names to the new states that would be established: “Silvania, Michigania, Chersonesus, Arsenistpia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga, Washington, Polypotamia, Pelisypia.” This is the first known printing of the name Michigan as applied to a part of the United States.1Karpinski, 65 and no. CIII. The choice of names reflects the classical propensities of the founding fathers, and the ornamentation in the title cartouche alludes to the interest that Europeans and Americans had in commerce and agriculture when considering the United States. At the time when this map was printed in Paris, the French expected to be the major trading partner for the area shown.
Donald H. Cresswell
Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.