Matthew clark and the beginnings of chart publishing in the United States;Matthew clark et le début de l'édition de cartes aux etats-unis

Imago Mundi

Volumn 63, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 22-38

  Bosse, David ^a  

^a Historic Deerfield Library   (United States)

Author keywords

Bartholomew burges; Boston; Cartographic publishing; Charts; John norman; Massachusetts; Matthew clark; Osgood carleton; The american pilot

Indexed keywords

EID: 78651452638     PISSN: 03085694     EISSN: 14797801     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03085694.2011.521328     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. Lawrence Wroth, Some American Contributions to the Art of Navigation, 1519-1802 (Providence, RI, John Carter Brown Library, 1947), 32.
2. Wroth's essay was later published in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 68 (1947): 72-112.
3. Wroth listed three institutional copies in 1947.
4. Charles Evans had located only two atlases when he published volume seven of his American Bibliography (Chicago, Columbia Press) in 1912 (entry 21738).
5. in 1969, James Clement Wheat and Christian Brun recorded six copies in Maps and Charts Published in America before 1800: A Bibliography (New Haven, Yale University Press).
6. When in 1989 the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan acquired a copy of the atlas that had previously been in private hands, I conducted a census that located 11 other examples in American libraries (American Antiquarian Society, Harvard Map Collection; Yale Map Collection; Girard College; Boston Public Library; Boston Athenaeum; Library of Congress; John Carter Brown Library; New York Public Library; Library Company of Philadelphia; Free Library of Philadelphia).
7. Since then, two institutional copies have been sold. The copy of the now-disbound atlas at Boston Public Library's Norman B. Leventhal Map Center lacks several charts; the original catalogue card from 1902 indicates that the copy was never complete, a fact overlooked by earlier bibliographies.
8. Beatrice Garvan, 'Matthew Clark's charts: one significant example of Yankee enterprise', in Philadelphia Printmaking: American Prints before 1860, ed. Robert F. Looney (West Chester, PA, Tinicum Press, 1976), 42-69.
9. The difficulties Romans faced in finding an engraver are examined in Lawrence Wroth, Abel Buell of Connecticut (Middletown, CT, Wesleyan University Press, 1958), 66-71.
10. and Clarence Brigham, Paul Revere's Engravings (Worcester, MA, American Antiquarian Society, 1954), 93-101.
11. Romans signed the map's cartouches as if he had engraved them.
12. For information on paper supply and costs, see Lyman H. Weeks, A History of Paper Manufacturing in the United States (New York, Burt Franklin, 1969), 41-56.
13. Rollo Silver touches on printing costs in The Colonial Printer 1787-1825 (Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 1967), 76-79.
14. The expense of engraving and printing in France and England is examined by Mary S. Pedley in The Commerce of Cartography: Making and Marketing Maps in Eighteenth-Century France and England (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2005).
15. data for 18th-century America has not been systematically gathered. The accounts of Matthew Carey in the American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, Mass.)
16. and the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia) contain hundreds of receipts for individuals who engraved and printed Carey's maps, and for others who sold him paper, ink and copperplates.
17. J. Brian Harley's article, 'Atlas maker for independent America', Geographical Magazine 49 (1977): 766-72, remains the best overview of Carey's cartographic business records
18. Rivington's remarks appeared in The Evening Star (New York), 30 October 1810.
19. quoted by Charles L. Nichols, 'The literary fair in the United States', in Bibliographical Essays: A Tribute to Wilberforce Eames (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1924), 85.
20. The supremacy of early Dutch charts of Europe and North America is discussed in A. H. W. Robinson, Marine Cartography in Britain: A History of the Sea Chart to 1855 (Oxford, Leicester University Press, 1962), 34-40.
21. Jeannette D. Black, 'Mapping the English colonies in North America: the beginnings', in The Compleat Plattmaker: Essays on Chart, Map, and Globe Making in England in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, ed. Norman J. W. Thrower (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1978), 101-4.
22. William P. Cumming, 'The colonial charting of the Massachusetts coast', in Seafaring in Colonial Massachusetts (Boston, Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1980), 81-84.
23. and John P. Snyder, The Mapping of New Jersey (New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1973), 5-20.
24. Coolie Verner, 'John Seller and the chart trade in seventeenth-century England', in Thrower, The Compleat Plattmaker (see note 7), 127-58.
25. Catherine Delano-Smith and Roger J. P. Kain, English Maps: A History (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1999), 156-57.
26. Coolie Verner, Introduction to The English Pilot, the Fourth Book (Amsterdam, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1967).
27. Cumming, 'The colonial charting of the Massachusetts coast' (see note 7), 90-92.
28. Colloquially referred to as a 'quarter Waggoner', the Fourth Book of The English Pilot was sold by booksellers, ship chandlers and general merchants in ports such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston throughout the eighteenth century.
29. David Bosse, 'Maps in the marketplace: cartographic vendors and their customers in eighteenth-century America', Cartographica 42 (Spring 2007): 10-17.
30. Appendix I, 41-46.
31. English production included the West India Pilot (London, 1766), The Newfoundland Pilot (London, 1769), The Atlantic Pilot (London, 1772), the North American Pilot (London, 1775), and the Atlantic Neptune (London 1774-1781).
32. L'Esprit des Journaux 3 (Paris, 1784): 359-74,
33. quoted in William P. Cumming, British Maps of Colonial America (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1974), 56.
34. For a wide ranging discussion of geography and cartography's role in shaping American identity, see Martin Brückner, The Geographic Revolution in Early America: Maps, Literacy, and National Identity (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2006).
35. Abel Buel, New and Correct Map of the United States of North America (New Haven, CT, 1784).
36. William McMurray, The United States According to the Definitive Treaty of Peace (Philadelphia, 1784).
37. John Norman and John Coles, An Accurate Map of the Four New England States (Boston, 1785).
38. John Fitch, A Map of the North West Parts of the United States of America (Philadelphia, 1785).
39. William Blodget, Topographical Map of the State of Vermont (New Haven, CT, 1789).
40. Christopher Colles, A Survey of the Roads of North America (New York, 1789-1792).
41. Colles's atlas, issued in sheets between 1789 and 1792, was never completed.
42. Walter W. Ristow, ed., A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America 1789 by Christopher Colles (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1961).
43. John Tebbel, A History of Book Publishing in the United States, Volume I, The Creation of an Industry, 1630-1865 (New York, R. R. Bowker, 1972), 83.
44. Clifford Shipton, Isaiah Thomas: Printer, Patriot, and Philanthropist (Rochester, NY, Leo Hart, 1948), 22.
45. Hugh Amory, 'The New England book trade, 1713-1790', in A History of the Book in America: Volume One, The Colonial Book in the AtlanticWorld, ed. HughAmory and David D. Hall (Cambridge, CambridgeUniversity Press, 2000), 333.
46. In the 18th century, publishers were essentially the financiers of a work. They might also be the author and/or a vendor of the work. In some cases, such as that of John Norman, the publisher was the engraver and printer aswell.
47. The map's publication is discussed in David Bosse, '"To promote useful knowledge": An Accurate Map of the Four New England States by John Norman and John Coles', Imago Mundi 52 (2000): 143-57.
48. D. F. McKenzie, ed., Stationers' Company Apprentices, 1701-1800 (Oxford, Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1978), 121.
49. Wheat and Brun, Maps and Charts Published in America (see note 2), 21 (entry 108).
50. Vital Records of Ipswich,Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849, vol. 2, (Salem, MA, Essex Institute, 1910), 69.
51. United States Department of Commerce and Labor, Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790. Massachusetts (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1908), 77.
52. Essex Journal (Newburyport, Massachusetts), 15 November 1785.
53. Boston Gazette, 8 December 1788.
54. Petition of John Norman, John Coles, Hector McNeil and Benjamin Gould. House Unenacted Petition no. 1836, 7 November 1785 (Boston, Massachusetts Archives).
55. Boston Gazette, 3 August 1789.
56. This method of publishing, first employed in England early in the 17th century and widely practiced in the American colonies, required a group of individuals to purchase one or more copies of a work upon publication. Variations on the basic premise involved partial or complete payment prior to publication, or delivery of the work in stages. Subscribers often paid less than market value, and thereby enjoyed some discount on the cost of the work.
57. Shipton, Isaiah Thomas (see note 16), 46.
58. Amory and Hall, A History of the Book in America (see note 17), 482.
59. Advertisements for the Fourth Book of the English Pilot abound in 18th-century American newspapers and booksellers' catalogues. Notices for the sale of Admiralty charts are rare. The fact that many notices are generic or vague can, however, obscure the actual identity of the item being. sold.
60. Bosse, 'Maps in the marketplace' (see note 10), 10-17.
61. Appendix I, 41-46.
62. Boston Gazette, 27 July 1789. Subscription notices also appeared in the Massachusetts Centinel (29 July) and the Herald of Freedom & Federal Advertiser (4 August).
63. Massachusetts Centinel, 4 August 1789.
64. Ibid, 15 August 1789.
65. Clark ran an auction business with William Eustis that was dissolved after Clark's death (Massachusetts Mercury, 18 September 1798).
66. In a notice in the New-York Journal of 28 September 1790, Clark identified himself as a boat builder.
67. Boston Marine Society Minutes, 1754-1833.
68. Meeting of 6 October 1789.Microfilmon deposit at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
69. Ibid, meeting of 1 December 1789.
70. Ibid, meeting of 5 January 1790.
71. An engraved endorsement, dated 17 October 1789, states that Carleton had examined the chart and declared the 'Head Lands & Angles confined to their true Latitudes & Longitudes& the Data Mathematically true'. He concluded, 'I approve of it as a true and accurate Chart'.
72. Carleton established his school on Oliver's Dock in August 1787.
73. Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing the Selectmen's Minutes from 1787 through 1798 (Boston, Rockwell & Churchill, 1896): 27-28.
74. For a discussion of how Carleton profited from his memberships and associations with well-placed individuals.
75. see David Bosse, 'Osgood Carleton, mathematical practitioner of Boston', Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 107 (1995): 156-58.
76. Massachusetts House of Representatives, Unenacted legislation no. 3303, 25 Jan. 1790 (Boston, Massachusetts Archives).
77. Massachusetts Centinel, 30 January 1790.
78. While Clark claimed that 'no chart will be published without this certificate [of accuracy] signed by Mr. Carleton's own hand in manuscript', the preliminary dedication leaf states: 'Although these charts are sold singly to some, and for that reason, a certificate of the examination is engraven on each plate, yet as the whole are bound together in this book, and have passed the same inspection, it is presumed that signing this will be satisfactory'. Some extant copies of the atlas bear a single signature on the verso of the dedication page, while others that were assembled from stock have Carlton's signature on most, or all, of the eighteen charts.
79. Matthew Clark's inventory of possessions made after his death includes '6 Copperplates' valued at 8.00 dollars, possibly those engraved by Joseph Seymour. Records of the Suffolk County (Mass.) Court of Probate, vol. 98, p. 554.
80. When examining the American Antiquarian Society's copy of the chart under ultraviolet light, the capital E and S of Burges were faintly visible. My thanks to Babette Gehnrich, chief conservator, for allowing me to view the chart in her lab.
81. George Washington's copy is in the Rare Book Division of New York Public Library. An inventory of the contents of Mount Vernon, dated August 1810, noted two 'setts' of 'Carltons Map of the Coasts of North America', apparently identified as such on the basis of Osgood Carleton's name appearing on many of the charts.
82. Eugene Prussing, The Estate of George Washington, Deceased (Boston, Little, Brown and Co., 1927), 433.
83. Tax Taking and Rate Books, City Hall, Boston.
84. Cited in Allan Kulikoff, 'The progress of inequality in revolutionary Boston', William and Mary Quarterly 28 (1971): 412.
85. The first Boston directory, published by John Norman in 1789, names 11 printers, but the reliability of that figure is in doubt. Norman's directory lists fewer than 10 per cent of the town's total population and fewer than half of the adult males, including Norman himself.
86. Ann Smith Lainhart, ed., First Boston City Directory (1789) Including Extensive Annotations by John Dexter Haven (1791-1876) (Boston, New England Historic and Genealogical Society, 1989), 2.
87. New-York Journal & Patriotic Register, 24 August 1790.
88. Here Burges indulges in hyperbole when commenting about the sources of the charts.
89. Ibid., 28 September 1790.
90. New-York Packet, 9 October 1790.
91. New-York Journal & Patriotic Register, 29 October 1790.
92. The chart's copyright notice is dated 24 February 1791.
93. Pinkham, who conducted his work from the Nantucket lighthouse, claimed that his chart 'has been proved by Experience to be the most accurate Chart ever offered to the Public of those dangerous Shoals'. Boston Gazette, 11 April 1791.
94. Wheat and Brun, Maps and Charts Published in America (see note 2), 124-25 (entries 575, 578, 580, 589).
95. The authors' speculation that Norman reused a c.1761 plate to produce the chart seems highly unlikely.
96. See also William Cumming and Louis DeVorsey, The Southeast in Early Maps, 3rd ed. (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 28.
97. Massachusetts House of Representatives, petition no. 1433, February 21, 1791 (Boston, Massachusetts Archives).
98. Thanks to archivist Martha Clark for interpreting the document's docketing.
99. Norman's advertisement in the 30 December 1789, issue of the Boston Gazette stated that he was engraving 'from the best authorities, Charts of all the Coasts of America upon a large scale', a reference to what would become The Atlantic Pilot. He noted that he was also engraving 'a General Chart of the said Coast' which would be 'carefully examined' by Osgood Carleton, a reference to the Matthew Clark atlas.
100. An edition of The American Pilot was later published in Boston in 1816 by Andrew J. Allen. Allen apparently acquired the plates from John Norman, who outlived his son, or from Norman's estate.
101. John Dabney, Catalogue of Books, for Sale or Circulation, in Town or Country (Salem, MA, 1791).