Books and Manuscripts

Howell, Reading
A Map Of The State Of Pennsylvania…
London: Published 1 August 1792 for the Author, & Sold by James Phillips. Very large engraved four-sheet map with contemporary hand-coloring, dissected into 48 sections and laid down onto period linen. Mixed state, as usual (top two sheets and lower right sheet in second state [1792], lower left sheet in fifth state [post-1799]). Hand-coloring faded; scattered small chipping and small closed tears along sheet edges; small chip in bottom left corner; contemporary repairs to linen, recto and verso. 38 1/4 x 64 1/2 in. (971 x 1638 mm). Phillips, A List of Maps of America, p. 679; Garrison, "Cartography of Pennsylvania Before 1800" in PMHB, vol. 59 (1935), p. 281; Ristow, pp. 108-110; Wheat and Brun, 433-436; Streeter 980

A scarce hand-colored example of Reading Howell's colossal map of Pennsylvania, considered the "best map of Pennsylvania to appear in the 18th century, and the first detailed map of the State to show its exact boundaries" (Wheat and Brun). The first large format map of Pennsylvania published after the American Revolution, it remained the standard map of the state well into the 19th century. With it Howell significantly expanded, and incorporated, for the first time all of the known geographical knowledge of the state that was accumulated by surveyors before, during, and after, the Revolutionary War. Commissioned by the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1789, Howell completed the map in two years, using geographic information from his own personal surveys, materials created by Nicolas and William Scull, who had surveyed the colony in the decades before the Revolution, as well as the numerous military plans and records generated during the war. The result was a significant advancement over all previous cartography of the state, and was the first to show the state's western border with Ohio, to delineate that state's county structure, and show for the first time many of the state's towns, cities, natural resources, and topographical features. 

This map was originally issued in four sheets over a period of several months (and years), during which it went through several corrections and additions, such as updating county lines, adding new settlements, etc., which has created various points. This example, as usual, is in a mixed state (according to Wheat and Brun only two examples are known to contain like states of the four plates), with all of the map in second state (1792), with the exception of the lower left sheet, which is in the fifth state (post-1799, with Clearfield Creek extending north of plate d; Chest Creek fully spelled out; Allegheny M. abbreviated thus). The first four states, as listed by Wheat and Brun, were issued in 1792, with later states issued as late as 1806.