EVANS, LEWIS 

BOWLES'S NEW ONE-SHEET MAP OF THE INDEPENDENT STATES OF VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, DELAWARE, PENSYLVANIA [SIC.], NEW JERSEY. NEW YORK, CONNECTICUT, RHODE ISLAND. &C. COMPREHENDING ALSO THE HABITATIONS & HUNTING COUNTRIES OF THE CONFEDERATE INDIANS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETORS BOWLES & CARVER, [CA. 1796-1800]

Coppꦍer-engraved map (sheet size: 21 x 27 1/2 i🍨n.; 533 x 699 mm). Full original color. 

A rare late issue of an important map by "the leadi𝓡ng American geographer of his day" (Stephenson & McKee).

This important map was first published in 1755 with the title A general Map of the Middle British Colonies in America. It was available either as a separate publication or bound into Evans' Geographical, Historical, Political. Philosophical and Mechanical Essays. The First Containing an Analysis of a General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America (Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin and David Hall, 1755). "Evans was the leading American geographer of his day. He incorporated into his map a wealth of geographical information not previously available on other maps, especially for the 🧔Ohio country. Extending from Quebec to Virginia and from the Atlantic coast to the Ohio River, his map was published in numerous authorized and pirated editions throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century" (op.cit.). The Bowles piracy was one of the longest-lived versions: John Bowles first issued a version of Evans' map in about 1760 and continued to do so for the rest of the century with alterations to the imprint and occasional changes of title. The present example shows the Bowಞles piracy in its final form, and appears to be considerably rarer than a number of the earlier issues: no copies of this issue are listed as having sold at auction in the past thirty years.

REFERENCE:

Brown, Early Maps of the Ohio Valley 41 (the original Philadelphia issue); Degrees of Latitude 34 (Philadelphia issue); Gipson Lewis Evans; Klinefelter "Lewis Evans" in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (1971), LXI: 56; McCorkle, New England 760.3, Issue 6; Schwartz & Ehrenberg, The Mapping of America 165 (Philadelphia issue); Stephenson & McKee, Virginia in Maps 82 (Philadelphia issue); Stevens, Lewis Evans His Map of the Middle British Colonies in America (1924) (does not include this issue); Stevens & Tree 29 and 30 (does not include this issue); Suárez, Shedding the Veil 57 (Philadelphia issue)