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The Only Later Edition of the Great Evans Map
From the Original Plate
Northeast/ Mid-Atlantic/ Midwest.
EVANS, L./ POWNALL, T. [London, 1776]
A Map of the Middle British Colonies In North America...March 25th, 1776.
19 1/8 x 32 inches.
Original outline color; minor marginal mends not affecting image; else excellent.
Rare. This is by far the most important edition of the pioneering Evans map outside of the original one, which was called by Schwartz "the most ambitious performance of its kind undertaken in America up to that time." Of the numerous later editions of map, Pownall’s was the only one to utilize the original plate and to have been authorized by Evans himself. In the upper left corner is a commendation of the map with Evans’ engraved signature.
Pownall’s map is in fact a novel hybrid, consisting of Evans’ original plate with a new plate for part of the Northeast appended to it. Pownall also significantly updated the original plate: "The whole of the map east of the longitude of Philadelphia is greatly changed, and is filled in with new details" (Stevens). Pownall, who had been governor of Massachusetts, stated that the New England section of the map was based on new information, "later Draughts and Surveys deposited at the Board of Trade" (Pownall's Topographical Description, in which the map was originally published).
Sadly, Evans saw little profit from his groundbreaking map, in large part due to the numerous pirated editions of it by Jefferys, Sayer, Kitchen, Bowles and others. So moved was Pownall by the plight of the wronged and indigent Evans, who received no funds from the sale of the numerous piracies of his map, that he pledged all profits from his edition of the map to Evans' daughter.
Stevens, H. Lewis Evans His Map, pp.17-28; Schwartz/Ehrenberg, p.1 |
