Virginia. Discovered and described by Captain John Smith, Grauen by William Hole.
Leading cartographic scholar Philip Burden labeled Smith’s work, “One of the most important printed maps of America ever produced.” In 1608, the second year of the colony, Smith led an expedition to reconnoiter the interior and to find food. For several months he explored the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers. His map shows how far he ventured up these rivers. The key reads, “To the crosses hath bin discouerd what beyond is by relation.” When Smith returned to Jamestown, he reluctantly became its leader and tried to impose discipline on the colonists for a year. Back in England after 1609, Smith arranged for the publication of his monumental map and book, the source of this map.
John Smith
1624
“Ould Virginia, A description of part of the adventures of Capt. Smith in Virginia.” 1624.
Captain John Smith displayed in words and pictures his heroic exploits in Virginia. This account of his capture of Indians and their capture of him along with his rescue by Pocahontas made him the first legendary figure in American history. <br /><br />The map in the bottom center panel was published separately in 1624 and then as shown here as a page in Smith’s Generall Historie. Cumming and De Vorsey commented on this map by noting how little cartographical impact Smith’s work had on later map makers. Burden disagrees and states how useful Smith’s work remains for contemporary archaeologists because Smith accurately located 166 Indian<br />villages.
John Smith
1624
Americae pars, Nunc Virginia dicta, primum ab Anglis inuenta, sumtibus Dn. Walter Raleigh, Equestris ordinis Viri Anno Dni. MDLXXXV regni Vero Sereniss: nostrae Reginae Elizabethae XXVII
Part of America, now called Virginia, first discovered by the English, have been taken Dn. Walter Raleigh, Knight of the Men, of the Year 1585, most gracious of , our Queen Elizabeth 27
This was the first separate map of Virginia. Drawn by John White, it appeared in Thomas Harriot’s <em>A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia</em> in Vol. 1 of Theodore de Bry’s <em>Great Voyages</em> in 1590. <br /><br />As an explorer, surveyor, cartographer, painter, and colonial administrator, John White played a central role in Sir Walter Raleigh’s attempt to plant a colony along this coast. Apparently from a humble background, White belonged to the London painter-stainers guild and achieved historical significance because of his employment by Raleigh. During White’s first voyage to Virginia in 1585-86, he along with Thomas Harriot, a noted scientist, surveyed the region. White’s detailed paintings of Natives engaged in daily activities rank among the most important images of North American Indians. The sketch White produced in 1585, a copy of which is preserved in the British Museum, became the basis for this published map. <br /><br />In 1587 White returned to Virginia as governor with a small group of colonists. Under orders from Raleigh, White planned to pick up the remaining Englishmen on Roanoke Island and move the entire settlement to a more favorable location on the Chesapeake Bay, but the ship captain refused to comply with White’s orders. At the urging of his settlers, White returned to England to secure needed supplies. The arrival of the Spanish Armada in 1588 delayed his return until 1590, when he found the vacant “Lost Colony.” Among those missing were his daughter and granddaughter, Virginia Dare, the first English colonist born in North America. In the same year, White’s map appeared in Theodore De Bry publication of Harriot’s glowing accounts of Virginia that sought to attract new settlers to Virginia, even though White’s experience there might argue against such a migration.
John White
1585
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