When a new volcanic island emerged from the waters south of Sicily in 1831, its strategic location at the gateway to the eastern Mediterranean aroused more than a scientific interest. Geopolitical forces descended upon this tiny isle, and though its brief existence above the waves lasted just six months, four separate nations claimed it as their own.

A short volume held at the BL, ‘Views and Description of the late Volcanic Island off the coast of Sicily’ (held at BL General Reference Collection 10163.d.10. – digital version here) provides a summary of events.

Chart Shewing the Position of the New Volcanic Island of Fernandea, in Views and Description of the late Volcanic Island off the coast of Sicily, [1832]. BL General Reference Collection 10163.d.10.

The first report of volcanic activity came on 10 July from Captain Corrao, of the schooner Theresina, who approached to within two miles of...

‘a column of water rising perpendicularly from the sea, to the height of fifty or sixty feet, having a circumference of four hundred fathoms: smoke issued from it, which strongly impregnated the atmosphere of its vicinity with a sulphurous odour: dead fish were observed within the circle of agitated waters, and a violent thunder, proceeding from the same spot, added to the grandeur and the novelty of the scene!’

The Volcanic Island of Fernandea, in Views and Description of the late Volcanic Island off the coast of Sicily, [1832]. BL General Reference Collection 10163.d.10.

Commander C.H. Swinburne of the Royal Navy arrived in the area a few days later –

‘I saw flashes of brilliant light mingled with the smoke, which was still distinctly visible by the light of the moon. In a few minutes, the whole column became black, and larger; almost immediately afterwards several successive eruptions of fire rose up among the smoke... At five am, when the smoke had for a moment cleared away at the base, I saw a small hillock of dark colour a few feet above the sea.’

Views of the New Volcanic Island of Fernandea, in Views and Description of the late Volcanic Island off the coast of Sicily, [1832]. BL General Reference Collection 10163.d.10.

The opportunity to claim the island was too good to miss. On 3 August, in a lull between eruptions, Royal Navy Captain Senhouse landed there to plant the British flag, and named it Graham Island after Sir James Graham, First Lord of the Admiralty. This act prompted representatives from Sicily, ‘highly excited by this achievement within sight of their shores’, to embark from the nearby port of Sciacca and plant their own flag, that of Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies. They named the island Ferdinandea, shortened to Fernandea on the chart above.

Over the following weeks French and Spanish claims were added to the list, but all such attempts to gain geopolitical advantage proved futile. Eruptions ceased from the middle of August, and by the end of the year the island, whose maximum extent was a mere two miles in diameter and 160 feet high, had slipped back beneath the waves. From that point it appeared on British charts as Graham’s Shoal, a bank lying eight meters beneath the surface.

More recently, in 2002, volcanic activity was recorded there again, and it was thought the island might re-emerge. In a bid to avoid being beaten to the mark a second time, Italian divers planted their national flag on the seamount beneath the surface. However, activity soon ceased and the shoal remained where it was.

Modern-day volcanologists agree that the descriptions of volcanic activity at Graham Island conform to what is known as ‘surtseyan’ activity – named after a more recent undersea eruption, which produced the island of Surtsey (from Surtr, the Norse God of Fire) off the southern coast of Iceland.

This eruption is thought to have begun in early November 1963 at a depth of 130 meters, but by 15 November a crater had become visible above the waves. The event caught the imagination of the televisual age – a number of clips on YouTube show footage made at the time.

Image of the eruption of Surtsey, courtesy U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Wikipedia.

The BL holds a map of the island made by the National Survey of Iceland using aerial photographs taken in October 1964 (BL Maps X.12169.). Eruptions continued until 1967, by which time the island no longer conformed to the map, but the sheet provides a fascinating snapshot of the island’s formation a year after it first emerged.

Surtsey, Landmælingar Íslands [National Survey of Iceland], 1964. BL Maps X.12169.

A block of text in Icelandic and English provides a summary of the different phases of eruption, and the map itself gives significant detail of the island’s contours and constituents.

Detail of Surtsey, Landmælingar Íslands [National Survey of Iceland], 1964. BL Maps X.12169.

Unlike Graham Island, and most others of their type, this example has persisted above the waves. It is estimated that roughly a quarter of the island has now been lost to erosion, and its maximum height has reduced to 155 meters, but it is likely to survive above the sea for another hundred years.

In this case there were no diplomatic squabbles over ownership, and its affiliation to Iceland is undisputed. But its persistence has made it especially valuable to science - 69 species of plant have been found there, 12 species of birds, and numerous other animals, including earthworms and slugs. In recognition of its value as a centre for the study of biocolonisation UNESCO declared the island a World Heritage Site in 2008.

Mapmaking is a highly exacting profession, as the scrutiny of current pandemic mapping demonstrates. Yet the fascinating thing about mapmaking is that everybody is capable of creating a map, and throughout history 'amateur' mapmakers have brought something new to the table.

Christopher Packe (1686-1749) was a local physician based in the area of Canterbury in Kent, who during his 'many otherwise tedious' medical  journeys around the area was struck by the similarities between the  landscape, features and processes of the natural world and those of the human body. Most notably, and unsurprising for a physician, the synergy between hydrology (specifically streams and rivers) and the flow of blood through the arteries and capillaries. As I mentioned in a previous post, there’s a strong history of thought positioning the human body as a microcosm of the universe. Packe's 1743 Philosophico-Chorographicall chart of East Kent is the Gunther von Hagens of maps. 

Christopher Packe, A new philosophico chorographical chart of East-Kent... Canterbury: C. Packe, 1743. Maps K.Top 16.24.11.Tab End.

Looking closely we can see the tremendous series of lines of thousands of tiny watercourses connecting to streams and thence to rivers, flowing out into the sea. So many of them, in fact, that we might be looking at a map of the English Fenland. 

A detail of Packe's new philosophico chorographical chart of East-Kent.

That's not all that Packe's map shows. Shading and spot heights communicate the relative heights above sea-level which Packe measured using a barometer. This has led to the map being described as the world's first geomorphological map. And finally there is the series of concentric circles demarking the map's co-ordinate system. These emanate from Canterbury and the cathedral, from which  Packe used a theodolite to survey the county and form his aesthetic and philosophical vision (see Michael Charlsworth for an in-depth study). 

Christopher Packe, A specimen of a philosophico chorographical chart of East-Kent. London: J. Roberts, 1737. Maps K.Top 16.32.2

Packe wrote a treatise in support of his work, and even produced a 'specimen' sample of the larger map six years earlier, a sort of taster which was presented to the Royal Society. A copy of the specimen is in the Topographical Collection of George III, published 'at his own expense.' Indeed, Packe put so much into his map that it is possible to imagine life in it, the culmination of a creative act. Something, if you will forgive the further analogy, created from the heart.

London, as well as many other cities around the world will not be having the traditional New Year’s Eve firework performance usually associated with this time of year so to cheer you all up here are some examples of historical firework displays found in the King’s Topographical Collection of maps and views. The materials reveal a great deal of detail on the subject and one can learn a surprising amount on the type of fireworks and techniques developed through the centuries as well as all the necessary preparations for breathtaking displays.

A VIEW of the FIRE-WORKES and ILLUMINATIONS, at his GRACE the Duke of RICHMOND'S at WHITE-HALL and on the River Thames, on Monday 15 May, 1749. Maps K.Top.27.41.6.

The use of fireworks in England date back to the second half of the 15^th century and subsequently been used to mark various occasions such as royal weddings, coronations or to celebrate military victories and peace treaties.

THE REVOLVING TEMPLE OF CONCORD ILLUMINATED As Erected in the Park in celebration of the glorious Peace of 1814. Maps K.Top.26.7.ff. 

Particularly splendid celebrations were organised on 27^th April 1749 to mark the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and the end of the War of the Austrian Succession, a major conflict between the Bourbon and Habsburg dynasties which lasted eight years between 1740 and 1748.

THEATRUM BELLI SERENISSIMAE DOMUS AUSTRICAE ... Map showing the theatre of war in the Austrian domain. Augsburg, 1740. Maps K.Top.88.26. 

For this particular occasion long preparations were undertaken to create a splendid spectacle for the elite. In the fashionable surroundings of St James’s Park an enormous structure measuring 410 feet long and 114 feet high so called the “fire-work machine” was constructed to create an impressive pyrotechnic display. 

A PLAN and ELEVATION of the ROYAL FIRE-WORKS to be presented in St. JAMES's PARK April the 27^th1749 on Account of the GENERAL PEACE signed at Aix la Chapelle Octr 7. MDCCXLVIII . Maps K.Top.26.7.r.

Furthermore, one of the leading composers of the day, George Frideric Handel was commissioned to supply suitable music for this extravaganza and so he composed his famous ‘Music for the Royal Fireworks’. By the way, Handel’s original manuscript is preserved at the British Library and is available here. A detailed description of this incredible ‘sound and vision’ show was published so you can read all about it and get an understanding of how the firework machine was constructed (but please don’t try to build one at home!)

A DESCRIPTION OF THE MACHINE FOR THE FIREWORKS ... Maps K.Top.26.7.r.(1.)

View of fireworks in Covent Garden to celebrate William III's victory in Ireland in July 1690. Maps K.Top.22.28.e.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2021! 

Only a few hours to go until Father Christmas sets off on his magical round, delivering presents to all the good children of the world. He is said by some to live in the forests of Lapland, high in the Arctic north of Finland, with his merry band of elves and trusty reindeer...

Attempting to find the location of his grotto, I turned to the first edition of the Atlas de Finlande (BL Maps 31.c.19.), a work published in French in 1899, and now considered by many to be the first of a new genre of mapmaking that would proliferate over the following century - the national atlas.

Atlas de Finlande, Société de Géographie de Finlande, 1899. BL Maps 31.c.19.

In thirty-two plates the atlas provides a comprehensive description of Finland and its people, and employs diverse and innovative thematic maps to articulate the results of scientific, economic and statistical research.

[Exports of sawn wood], Atlas de Finlande

[Average seasonal and annual wind directions], Atlas de Finlande

[Rural schools], Atlas de Finlande

[Population density], Atlas de Finlande

The atlas also makes a clear political assertion of Finnish cultural identity and nationality at a time before Finland was an independent country, whilst still an autonomous region within the Russian Empire. With political relations deteriorating, the publication makes a case for and anticipates Finland's declaration of independence, which followed in 1917.

In particular, the depiction of Finland’s border throughout the atlas was seen as a provocation, as the same line symbols represented both Finland’s internal boundary with the rest of Russia, and her international boundaries with Sweden and Norway. This formed the subject of an official Russian protest.

[Map of Finland, showing the frontier], Atlas de Finlande

At the International Geographical Congress of 1899 in Berlin, and at the Paris World Exhibition of the following year, the atlas was hailed as an outstanding cartographic and scientific achievement.

But I have found one small omission. However hard I look, I cannot find that grotto...

[Forests], Atlas de Finlande

Merry Christmas!

 

Nick Dykes

2020 has certainly been a year for maps, though not one for which any of us will feel grateful. I’m referring to the proliferation of often doom-laden public maps illustrating the spread (and receding – more of this please) of Covid-19 across the UK. Throughout the year, interactive maps have appeared on online media outlet pages, and most prominently, maps have featured along with graphs and charts in daily government briefings into the official response to the virus.

Geographical spread of Covid-19 in England, 15 September 2020. Taken from the Coronavirus daily briefing slides of 21 September 2020

Data visualisations have played an important role in keeping the public informed, and for demonstrating the scientific evidence behind the adoption of measures to combat the pandemic. Occasionally the quality of data visualisation has not been to standard. Professor James Cheshire of UCL Geography has written about this, providing some cardinal rules such as ’explain your working’ and ‘keep it simple.’

This latter rule has been well understood by the makers of public maps for centuries. Before the computer screen, maps had to work hard in order to be legible and intelligible by large groups of people from potentially large distances away. From the 1840s in the UK, large maps were specifically designed with bolder lines and reduced information in order to function, for example, in large elementary school settings.

George Frederick Cruchley's school room maps were large and specifically bold productions for use in large spaces. Cruchley's enlarged Map of Europe. Compiled for the use of Colleges and Schools. London, 1851. Maps STE 167

Large maps were also used as backdrops for large gatherings and meetings. Remember those?

This large map of 1916 showing the projected Berlin-Baghdad Railway, almost 3 metres wide, was used as the backdrop for public lectures on subjects such as 'Why Germany Wanted War.' Sifton-Praed Ltd., 'The German scheme of Mittel Europa.' London, 1916.

If you want your map to be seen and understood by a lot of people, make it as clear as possible.  Of course, this isn't always practical: nobody wants to be accused of ‘dumbing-down’. And there is no getting away from the fact that geography is complicated and maps can be misleading, particularly when it involves mapping people who are neither static nor evenly spread. Thus the map of the UK divided into counties or regions and coloured by numbers of Covid cases per 100,000 people is falsely reassuring: large, rural and comparatively Covid-free counties dominate visually over smaller, more concentrated and consequently more affected urban areas (tools such as inset maps, and more arresting colours and tones, each of them subjective in their own way, have helped).

Though there were earlier attempts, it was only really towards the end of the 20^th century that algorithms enabled population figures (such as UK census data) to be visualised spatially in digital maps. For some examples, see the cartograms from Danny Dorling’s ‘New Social Atlas of Britain (1995) and also ‘Worldmapper’ Tina Gotthardt and Benjamin Hennig’s terrific up-to-date world cartograms where the size of a state is visualised in human terms, such as the relative size of its population or, as here, its proportion of confirmed Coronavirus cases over a particular period. 

Worldmapper, 'Covid-19/Coronavirus cases (January-August 2020). ©Worldmapper 2020

Maps need to be clear and understandable. But of course there’s also a lot to be said for complexity. People like scientific data, and this year has been big year for science and its associated debates. Historically, there are no shortage of maps whose creators have clearly delighted in cramming as much scientific content into them as possible, even to the point of confusion. We might call this the rhetorical use of science in maps, the deployment of science an alluring device to emphasise the accuracy, seriousness or reliability of what is being shown, or even as a self-promoting device used by a mapmaker to demonstrate his or her scientific acumen.

Adam Zurner goes to town with a variety of hemispheres and scientific diagrams of the earth and cosmos. Planisphaerium Terrestre cum utroque Caelesti Hemisphaerio, sive diversa Orbis Terraquei ... Amsterdam: Pieter Schenk, around 1735. Maps K.Top 4.15.

 

Isaac Causton's 1719 estate map of part of Suffolk lays it on somewhat heavy with the grid. 'A map of Madm Margaret Bonnell's land lying in the parishes of Brent-Eligh and Preston in the county of Suffolk surveyed by Isaac Causton'; 1719. Add.MS 69459.

 

11^th December marks International Mountain Day giving us a great reason to celebrate mountains in maps!

Mountains cover approximately 24% of the Earth’s land surfaces therefore not surprisingly they form a core features appearing on countless maps produced through centuries. Unlike vegetation or rivers which can disappear or change their course over time mountain ranges are considered an ideal persistent landmark which can help travellers identify their location or can be used as natural borders between regions and countries.

Detail showing portion of the Himalayas from Imperii Sinarum Nova Descriptio by Jan van Loon. Amsterdam, 1656-1675. Maps K.Top.116.12. 

Mapmakers often expressed their artistic skills, imagination and creativity by representing mountainous terrain in distinctive ways, either by the use of subtle colouring and shading drawn pictorially or by original symbol designs making their maps not only a practical tool but an actual work of art as well.

Detail from Military Survey of Scotland by William Roy, (1747-1752) Maps CC.5.a.441.

The so-called mountain tourism in Europe can be dated back to the 18^th century and the Grand Tour, a fashionable journey across Europe undertaken by young gentleman as a complement to their formally acquired education. In the 19^th century it was discovered that high altitude fresh air had a therapeutic effect on lung disease and the Alpine climate was considered to be the best treatment. Poets and painters created a tranquil idyllic vision of the Alps with their gorgeous surroundings of unspoilt nature, thriving wild life and clean air.  

Horace Bénédict de Saussure and his guides climbing up Mont Blanc in 1787. Voyage De M.R De Saussure A La Cime Du Mont-Blanc Au Mois D'août MDCCLXXXVII Christian von Mechel. Geneva, 1790. Maps K.Top.76.77.c.

Throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries mountaineers began to explore the more remote areas initially relying on local guides to help them discover the unfamiliar valleys, gorges and glaciers with their waterfalls and mountain lakes. Their detailed maps and accounts paved the way for others to follow in their footsteps.

Official poster for the 1976 Winter Olympic Games to Berann's design that combined the techniques of landscape painting and mapdrawing. Heinrich Berann, XII. Olympische Winterspiele Innsbruck 1976, Innsbruck, 1976. Maps 1060.(4)

Nowadays the mountainous landscape is not only associated with active holidays such as skiing or summer treks but also leisure activities including rock climbing, water rafting and mountain biking. In the late 20^th century the amateur mountaineers began to conquer the world’s highest peaks. Extreme sport enthusiasts regularly head for the summit of Mount Everest in the Himalayas, the highest mountain on earth at 8850 m (29,035 feet) is become quite a tourist attraction!

Last week another temperature record was set in Sydney, Australia – the overnight minimum temperature of 25.4 degrees Celsius was the highest ever for November, higher even than the historical daytime average for the month. This is one of a string of new records set there over recent years.

Graphics courtesy of Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, above, and BBC, below.

With heat comes the risk of bushfires, which have once again started to burn across the region, reminding us of the catastrophic fire season that was experienced last year - now known as ‘Black Summer’. In total an estimated area of between 18 and 24 million hectares burned - comparable in size to the area of Great Britain - with the loss of 34 lives, over 3,500 properties destroyed, and estimates ranging from one to three billion mammals, birds and reptiles killed.

This map depicts the state of fires in the region around Sydney on one of the worst days of the crisis, and was issued to the public through the New South Wales Rural Fire Service website to encourage evacuation from areas under immediate threat. The British Library imaging studios made a large format print from the file to be kept in the maps collection.

Potential fire spread prediction for Saturday 21 December 2019, NSW Rural Fire Service. BL Maps X.17367.

The area shown extends around 150 miles from north to south. In particular the map indicates the plight of towns along the Great Western Highway in the Blue Mountains, to the west of Sydney, which are caught between bushfires to the north and to the south. The prediction shows the highway being cut off by fire to the north-west of Katoomba, and the outskirts of Katoomba, Leura and Wentworth Falls falling under threat from ember attack, which forced large numbers of inhabitants to evacuate eastwards to Sydney.

Fortunately the worst did not come to pass, and over the following days back-burning operations – where controlled fires are started ahead of the oncoming blaze to deprive it of fuel – kept the fire fronts largely at bay. Some of these can be seen in irregular dark areas of burning to the north-east of Katoomba on a screenshot of the Rural Fire Service’s ‘Fires Near Me’ mobile site.

Screen shot of Fires Near Me mobile webpage, NSW Rural Fire Service, 25 December 2019.

It was not until torrential rains fell in early February that these fires were finally extinguished.

Debate continues around what caused the fires to be so extreme. By June of 2019 record high temperatures and longstanding conditions of drought had led experts to warn of an extended fire season to come, and many attribute these underlying conditions to climate change.

Others also point the finger to an alleged reduction in the use of fire management techniques learned from, and still practised by, Indigenous people. This map of Arnhem Land in northern Australia shows the results of a collaboration between scientists and Indigenous people, where the frequency of ‘hot fires’ has been reduced in areas deliberately burned during the previous cold season.

Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia, Macquarie, 2005, fig.3.17. BL Maps 234.b.40.

Whichever factors led last year's fires to be so extreme, most agree that bushfires are an inevitable part of Australian life. An ambition harboured by many, perhaps, but that is yet to be achieved, is expressed by the author of a 1976 study, 'Bushfire: history, prevention, control' (BL HMNTS X.322/8372) - ‘Fire has been part of the Australian environment for a very long time. I hope that... this book conveys the sense that fire and man must live together, not in a master/servant relationship, but as co-habitants in a finely balanced environment.’

Only yesterday, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, declared, ‘Our planet is broken. Nature always strikes back and is doing so with gathering force and fury’. We can only hope that the fire season to come is not like the last.

In October we released 18,000 digital images of early maps and views from the Topographical Collection of George III. View the collection on Flickr Commons, and access images via the maps and views' catalogue records on Explore. Here's my choice of five compelling maps from the collection. 

1. Plan of Manila, 1739.

D. Antonio de Roxas, Manila, c. 1739

This is the only recorded example of this 1739 edition of the 1717 town plan of Manila in the Philippines. Manila was, and is, a key international centre of trade, and the map was actually produced in the town (in a tiny vignette we can see a copy being presented by the Spanish governor of the Philippines to King Philip V of Spain). There’s probably no better image of a bustling commercial site, proof that a town is not just about its architecture and layout, but its people and processes too. This map has additional resonance, because Manila was besieged and looted by the British in 1762, and annotations in the map’s bottom right refer to aspects of the battle. Could it be George himself annotating the map according to reports he had received of the battle? 

D. Antonio Fernandez de Roxas, TOPOGRAPHIA DE LA CIUDAD DE MANILA : CAPITAL de las yslas Philipinas

Manila: Hipoloto Ximenez, [around 1739].

Maps K.Top 116.40

2. Map and survey of Plymouth Harbour, 1780

Matthew Dixon, Plan of Plymouth, 1780.

This is the map that reminds me most of the strong links between mathematics and art in maps. It’s a large and serious military drawing, officially commissioned and with an accompanying report, of a key strategic naval installation and site of British maritime strength and power. It was drawn up as part of the earliest mapping activities for what would become the Ordnance Survey a few years later, enacted in response to the threat of invasion from Napoleonic France. So why is it so stunningly and mesmerizingly beautiful? It’s a question that should infuriate everyone who sees maps purely as cold communicators of facts and 'data.'

Matthew Dixon, Colonel, surveyor.
‘A General Plan with a Project for the Defence of the Arsenals of Plymouth, / By Lieut: Colonel Dixon Chief Engineer of the Plymouth Division. Revised and corrected by Geo. Beck Jan. 1780.’

Maps K.Top 11.79.2.TAB

 

3. Aquatint view of Kingston-upon-Thames, 1813

Thomas Horner, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1813.

Thomas Horner, Kingston upon Thames. 1813

Maps K.Top 40.15.3.11.TAB

Is it a map or is it a view? What is that ominous large shadow looming in, Holbein-like, from stage left? Who cares! This is an intriguing and brilliantly composed aquatint print showing a collection of views of picturesque Kingston-upon-Thames. From above, in profile, from a distance away, it’s a multi-faceted image that invites us to dissolve our perception of the differences between vistas and to see them as a combined and rounded description of a place. Cartographic cubism! As Horner himself wrote, ‘…the whole, blended into one design by a picturesque fore-ground, forms a faithful view of the parish.’ It’s a joyous visual experience, with a few intrigues and little jokes (note the bungling surveyor- stonemasons in the foreground) thrown in for good measure.

4. India, 1619

William Baffin, Map of the Mughal Empire, 1619.

This is a portentous map - the earliest British printed map of part of India. It marks the beginning of British cartographic involvement in India that would reach new levels of science-led imperial control through mapping by 1900. The Roe-Baffin map was produced following the earliest English trade mission to the Mughal empire. It has a stellar cast: Sir Thomas Roe, the diplomat who headed up the embassy. William Baffin, the navigator who went on to attempt to locate the North West Passage (Baffin Island is named after him). Reynold Elstrack, one of the earliest native English engravers.

The map was one of very few English-produced maps to provide a model for later Dutch atlas maps by Blaeu, Janssonius and others. English mapmakers were more often the copycats. The engraving of a Mughal seal has been expertly assessed by the British Library’s Dr Annabel Gallop.

William Baffin, 1584-1622, cartographer. A Description of East India conteyninge th'Empire of the Great Mogoll. / William Baffin deliniauit, et excudebat. ; Renold Elstrack sculp.

[London] : Are to be Sold in Pauls Church yarde. by Thomas Sterne Globemaker., [1619]

Maps K.Top 115.22

5. The United States of America, 1782

John Mitchell, Map of the British Colonies in North America..., 1775 (updated to 1782).

This is a map with a story and a reminder of the power – and paranoia – that can be associated with maps. John Mitchell’s map of ‘the dominions of North America’ is a tremendous cartographic achievement in its level of description of this vast area. Yes, standing on the shoulders of earlier maps, but adding a vast quantity of descriptive notes and even including naming Native American nations (who were nevertheless ignored in what followed).

On another level, this late edition of the map is a piece of history, being the copy used by the British delegation at the 1782 Treaty of Paris where the terms of the peace following Britain’s defeat at the hands of the United States were established. The map has been marked up in red to show the lines of the new border the British would be happy with. But at the conference they realised that they didn’t have to cede quite as much as they had drawn. The map suggests that Upper Canada (much of modern-day Ontario) was also available to the USA. So later the British government ordered the British Museum to lock the map away so that nobody, particularly no inquisitive Americans, might see it and demand any more.

It was hidden from view until the early 20^th century.  

John Mitchell, 1711-1768, cartograph.er. A MAP of the BRITISH COLONIES in North America…

[London] : Publish'd by the Author Feb.ry 13.th 1755 according to Act of Parliament : Printed for Jefferys & Faden Geographers to the KING at the corner of S.t Martins Lane Charing Cross London, [about 1775, with annotations to 1782].

Maps K.Top 118.49.b.

 

Tom Harper