As Europeans explored the globe, they encountered new animals. And those creatures often found their ways on to maps as illustrations. For map buyers, the drawings provided a glimpse at fauna in distant lands. The illustrations also contributed to a map’s appeal.
Philip Lea
A New Map of Carolina
London: Philip Lea, ca. 1690
A New Map of Carolina depicts the region from the modern-day North Carolina and Virginia border south to St. Augustine, Florida, and inland to the vaguely defined “Apalatian Mountaines.” A New Map is part of a wall map of English colonies in North America, consisting of two or more large sheets, each with its own title, and sold separately.
This is the first map of Carolina to provide meaningful details on early settlements, particularly around Charleston’s rivers. The scale of the map is far too small for this to have been much use to navigators. Rather, this map would have encouraged settlement to Carolina, highlighting the natural resources with illustrations of well-antlered deer or elk, panthers, a turkey, a boar, a raccoon, and an ostrich.
North Carolina Collection
Johannes Henry Huber
Die Provintz Nord und Sud Carolina
Bern: 1711
This map depicting North America’s southeastern coast from modern-day Chesapeake Bay to St. Augustine, Florida was published in J.R. Ochs’s American Guidebook in 1711. Though inspired by John Lawson's 1709 map Voyage to Carolina, Ochs’s book is targeted to attract Swiss emigrants. He advises about how and when the journey should be made, the cost, what to take along, and how to purchase land. The map includes a German-language legend indicating Native American villages, land quality, and the presence of mines. The inclusion of cornucopia and fruit garlands in the title cartouche suggests the region’s fertility.
North Carolina Collection
George Schroeter
Carolina Described 1666 in Francis L. Hawks, History of North Carolina
Fayetteville: E.J. Hale & Son, 1859
Robert Horne's 1666 map of the Carolina coast is reproduced here in facsimile. The map appeared in a pamphlet promoting English settlement and highlights the presence of animals and the potential for agricultural development. It is the first printed map devoted to the Carolinas and the first to use the name “Carolina” in the title. Schroeter created this facsimile of Horne's map due to its historic importance and rarity.
North Carolina Collection