Mitchell cartouche (small)

This page corrected November 11th, 1997. The old version is still available for consultation.

John Mitchell's Map
Bibliography

The following is a brief list, annotated, of the works referred to in this website. It is not a comprehensive listing of all works that have mentioned John Mitchell and his map.

Berkeley & Berkeley 1974 Berkeley, Edmund, and Dorothy Smith Berkeley. Dr. John Mitchell: The Man who Made the Map. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1974.

Despite their biography's title, the Berkeleys turned to John Mitchell because of his importance as a colonial botanist. Two chapters do examine the making of his map -- "Mitchell, the Map Maker" (pp.175-89) and "Cartographic Recognition" (pp.190-213) -- but not in as great a depth as historians of cartography would wish. However this biography does fill out the life of a hitherto enigmatic cartographic figure.

Boyd 1961 Boyd, Julian P., ed. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Volume 16: 30 November 1789 to 4 July 1790. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961.

Reproduces (after p.52) the sheet of Mitchell's map that Franklin annotated for Jefferson in 1790.

Burrage 1919 Burrage, Henry S. Maine in the Northeastern Boundary Controversy. Portland: Marks Printing for the State of Maine, 1919.

A useful, if now dated, overview of the history after 1783 of Maine's northern boundaries by the Maine State Historian.

Cappon et al. 1976 Cappon, Lester J., Barbara Bartz Petchenik, and John Hamilton Long, eds. Atlas of Early American History: The Revolutionary Era, 1760-1790. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press for The Newberry Library and The Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1976.

A wonderful, if somewhat controversial, historical atlas covering the era of the creation and use of Mitchell's map. It includes (p.58) a tracing of Mitchell's map overlain by a "deformation grid" to show the map's geographical configuration vis-à-vis modern maps (explanation on pp.125-26).

De Vorsey 1986 De Vorsey, Louis, Jr. "Maps in Colonial Promotion: James Edward Ogle- thorpe's Use of Maps in Selling' the Georgia Scheme." Imago Mundi 38 (1986): 35-45.

Discusses the Popple Map of 1733 and its role in encouraging British colonial settlement.

Fite & Freeman 1926 Fite, Emerson D., and Archibald Freeman. A Book of Old Maps Delineating American History from the Earliest Days down to the Close of the Revolutionary War. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1926. Reprinted, New York: Dover, 1969.

A classic text on the early history of North American cartography. This work nonetheless has some problems, as exemplified in its confusion over the various editions of the Mitchell Map. The map is discussed in two sections: "A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America" (pp.180-84), and "A Map of the British Colonies in North America" (pp.290-93). This last section provides a large reproduction of the British Library's "Red-Line" map presented to George III. Of most use to a modern audience are the extensive quotations of Mitchell's textual annotations on the body of the map.

Gallatin & Webster 1843 Gallatin, Albert, and Daniel Webster. The North-Eastern Boundary: Mr. Gallatin's memoir, together with the Speech of the Hon. Daniel Webster, LL.D., illustrated with a copy of the "Jay Map," April 15, 1843. New York: New York Historical Society, 1843.

A first-hand account of the American side of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1843. It includes a copy of a section of Jay's map showing Maine and the northeast.

Goggin 1968 Goggin, Daniel T., comp. Preliminary Inventory of the Records Relating to International Boundaries (Record Group 76). Washington, D.C.: The National Archives, 1968.

This listing includes much of relevance to the Maine borders. A "cartographic series" has subsequently been separated out from the main record group, with different entry numbers; for these, reference must be made to an annotated copy of the inventory.

Goss 1990 Goss, John. The Mapping of North America: Three Centuries of Map-Making, 1500-1860. Secaucus, NJ: Wellfleet Press, 1990.

A coffee-table book with good reproductions of many maps of North America, including the Mitchall Map (pp.130-31).

Greene 1755 [Greene, John.] Explanation for the New Map of Nova Scotia and Cape Britain, With the Adjacent Parts of New England and Canada. London: Thomas Jefferys, 1755.

Although the author is not specified on the titlepage, it is certainly by Greene, who levels some criticism at Mitchell's sources.

Harley 1966 Harley, J. B. "The Bankruptcy of Thomas Jefferys: An Episode in the Economic History of Eighteenth-Century Map-Making." Imago Mundi 20 (1966): 27-48.
Martin nd Martin, Lawrence. "General Considerations -- Mitchell Maps -- Faden Maps -- The Sparks 'Red Line' Map -- The Evidence of the Maps." nd. In "Collected Copies of Correspondence and Other Memoranda Relating to Col. Lawrence Martin's Studies of the Mitchell Maps, ca.1925-35," National Archives, Record Group 76, Records Relating to International Boundaries, Cartographic Series 28. (Goggin 1968, item.20))

A 6-page typescript listing some of the Mitchell Maps associated with the Treaty of Paris. Despite its title, it does not treat the other maps.

Martin 1927 Martin, Lawrence. Memorandum, 16 March 1927. In "Collected Copies of Correspondence and Other Memoranda Relating to Col. Lawrence Martin's Studies of the Mitchell Maps, ca.1925-35," National Archives, Record Group 76, Records Relating to International Boundaries, Cartographic Series 28. (Goggin 1968, item.20))

Includes copies of papers concerning the meeting of August 3rd, 1782, between John Jay and the count d'Aranda.

Martin 1972 Martin, Lawrence. "John Mitchell's Map of the British and French Dominions in North America." Edited by Walter W. Ristow and Richard W. Stephenson. In A la Carte: Selected Papers on Maps and Atlases, edited by Walter W. Ristow, 102-13. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1972.

Chief of the Library of Congress's Map Division (1924-46), Martin was fascinated by the Mitchell Map. Ristow presents a summary of Martin's several publications. (Unfortunately, Martin's full-length study on the map, still in typescript on his death, was lost before 1956.) Stephenson presents Martin's scheme for identifying the eleven editions of the map, based on the thirty copies of the map that he collected for the Library of Congress.

McElroy & Riggs 1943 McElroy, Robert, and Thomas Riggs. "Introduction." In The Unfortified Boundary: A Diary of the First Survey of the Canadian Boundary Line from St. Regis to the Lake of the Woods by Major Joseph Delafield, American Agent under Articles VI and VII of the Treaty of Ghent, From the original manuscript recently discovered. Edited by robert McElroy and Thomas Riggs, 3-131. New York: "privately printed," 1943.

This introduction sets the stage for the 1817-1823 boundary determination through the Great Lakes with a thorough analysis of the Treaty of Paris, the "red line maps," and the Maine boundary. I must thank Joseph Delafield III for donating a copy of this limited edition to the Osher Map Library.

Morris 1980 Morris, Richard B., ed. John Jay: The Winning of the Peace: Unpublished Papers, 1780-1784. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.

Provides a very succinct overview of the role of the Mitchell map in the Treaty of Paris. Reproduces two section of John Jay's copy of the Mitchell map and clearly identifies this as a third edition.

North America 1974 North America at the Time of the Revolution: A collection of Eighteenth Century Maps with Introductory Notes by Louis De Vorsey Jr. Part II. Lympne Castle, Kent: Harry Margary, 1974.

A collection of full-size facsimiles of maps from the 1770s, in three parts. The second part includes the fourth edition (1775) of the Mitchell Map. The introductory (and unpaginated) notes by Prof. De Vorsey are only cursory.

Schwartz & Ehrenberg 1980 Schwartz, Seymour I., and Ralph E. Ehrenberg. The Mapping of America. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1980.

A general history of maps of America, this book provides excellent context for the Mitchell Map in terms of the other maps produced at about the same time.

Sellers & Van Ee 1981 Sellers, John R., and Patricia Molen Van Ee. Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750-1789: A Guide to the Collections in the Library of Congress. Washington: Library of Congress, 1981.

The Mitchell Map comprises entries 37-53 (pp.11-14); in classifying the London editions, Sellers & Van Ee follow Martin (1972).

Stevens 1897 Stevens, B. F. "A Collation or Comparison of the More Conspicuous Points of Variation in the Several Issues." Undated, but ca.1897. In "Collected Copies of Correspondence and Other Memoranda Relating to Col. Lawrence Martin's Studies of the Mitchell Maps, ca.1925-35," National Archives, Record Group 76, Records Relating to International Boundaries, Cartographic Series 28. (Goggin 1968, item.20))
Stevens & Tree 1980 Stevens, Henry, and Roland Tree. "Comparative Cartography." In, The Mapping of America, edited by R. V. Tooley, 41-107. Holland Press Cartographica, 2. London: Holland Press, 1980.

Originally published in 1951, this is a comprehensive listing of the various editions and states of separately issued maps of North America originally published before 1800. Data collection was begun by Henry N. Stevens in 1880; it is possible that an incomplete reference by him was taken as accurate by Stevens & Tree, thereby accounting for the possibly erroneous entry concerning Mitchell's map (no.54; pp.86-87), in an otherwise meticulous and trustworthy work.

Tufte 1983 Tufte, Edward R. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, Conn.: Graphics Press, 1983.

Reproduces, in part, the deformation grid applied to Mitchell's map by Cappon et al. (1976).

OML Compass Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education
University of Southern Maine