Plan of the Town of Boston.
[Boston]: [Greenleaf and Freeman], [1784]. 9 1/8 x 5 7/8." A strong image. Soiling and some darkening to plate area, apparently as printed. Blank area of upper right corner skillfully replaced and three short fold separations repaired on the reverse. Item #3792
This extremely scarce little map of Boston appeared as part of the Geographical Gazetteer of the Towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a work issued in parts as a supplement to The Boston Magazine from October, 1784 through December, 1785. The map appeared with the October, 1784 issue of The Boston Magazine.
Wheat & Brun note that this map is based largely on Norman's Plan of the Town of Boston with the Attack on Bunkers-Hill..., published in the Boston edition of An Impartial History of the War in America in 1781. The present map covers a somewhat smaller geographic area (and on a modestly larger scale) than the map that appeared in An Impartial History. It also adds/eliminates/changes some street names and landmarks, making it more than a direct re-engraving and suggesting the involvement of a cartographer -- perhaps Osgood Carleton with whom Norman collaborated on several maps and charts in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Norman's 1781 Plan was itself sourced directly from the map appearing in the English edition of An Impartial History (1778).
Although the present map is not listed in the Boston Engineering Department's List of Maps of Boston Published Subsequent to 1600 (1904), it is referenced in the listing for a 1789 version of the map that had apparently been re-engraved for Norman's Boston Directory (1789). Very scarce. No examples listed for sale in the Antique Map Price Record (1983-2011), and we not aware of any other examples being offered in the past twenty years.
A lovely example of one of the most uncommon 18th century maps of Boston.
References: Wheat & Brun, Maps and Charts Published in America before 1800: 242. Jolly, Maps of America in Periodicals before 1800: 402. Lewis: A Guide to Engravings in American Magazines, 1741-1810: p. 3. Stauffer, American Engravers Upon Copper and Steel: 2361.
[ICN 7760.].
Price: $7,500.00