This page corrected November 1st, 1997. The old version is still available for consultation.

There are several summaries of the different editions and versions of Mitchell's Map, all of which are different! This page explains how the different listings relate to each other. While I have seen many different Mitchell Maps, I have not examined instances of all the variations listed here; the identification of editions and issues is based on the published data.

This listing includes only the London editions of Mitchell's Map. For information concerning the Dutch, French, and Italian editions see Martin (1972, 110-13).

Contents:

• The Physical Artifact: Size, Storage, and Color
• Printing from Copper: "States" and "Editions"
• Concordance of Editions and Issues of Mitchell Maps
• 1st Edition, 1st Issue, 1755
• 1st Edition, 2nd Issue, 1755
• 1st Edition, 3rd Issue, 1755
• 2nd Edition, 1755-57
• 3rd Edition, 1st Issue, 1773-75
• 3rd Edition, 2nd Issue, 1773-75
• 3rd Edition, 3rd Issue, 1773-75
• 4th Edition, 1775

The copy of the fourth edition of Mitchell's map on display at the Osher Map Library received a wash of water-colors probably between 1773/74 and the end of the eighteenth century (discussed elsewhere). The color wash was applied to each sheet separately, as the colors are not all continuous across the edges of the sheets; the sheets were dissected after coloring.

This summary follows the numbering of "editions" defined by Martin (1972, 109-10). My reasons are: (a) I am of the opinion that Stevens & Tree (1980, 86-87) are just a bit too precise; and (b) I suspect that there might be an error in their listing (see below under Third Edition). I prefer the term "issue" to "impression" to refer to varients within an edition.

[inside bottom margin] "Tho: Kitchen Sculp. Clerkenwell Green."

[outside bottom margin] "Publish'd by the Author Febry 13th 1755 according to Act of Parliament, and Sold by And: Miller opposite Katherine Street in the Strand."

Both "Miller" and "Katherine" in the imprint are misspelled; Worcester, Mass., is improperly labelled "Leicester," in addition to the town of that name.

Reproduced in Sellers & Van Ee (1981, 12).

NOTE: Schwartz & Ehrenberg (1980, 164) reproduce a very handsome example -- in color -- of the Mitchell Map. They state that the reproduction is of the map's "third edition" although the map's lack of the large text blocks added with the second edition (below) would indicate that this is incorrect. It is possible that they intended to mean the third issue (Martin's "impression") of the first edition. Unfortunately, the reproduction is too small for the issue (one to three) to be discerned. Some of the confusion might have derived from the existence in the Public Record Office, Kew, of a first edition that has been called "the red line map (so called)" (Stevens 1897) and "the English 'Red-Line' Map" (Martin nd); this has a red chalk line marking a boundary.

[inside bottom margin] as 1st edition, 1st issue

[outside bottom margin] "Publish'd by the Author Febry 13th 1755 according to Act of Parliament, and Sold by And: Millar opposite Katharine Street in the Strand."

The "Millar" and "Katharine" in the imprint are now correctly spelled.

No changes are recorded in the geographical detail. Worcester, Mass., is still improperly labelled "Leicester," in addition to the town of that name. Such minor changes probably indicate tinkering to the eighth plate during 1755.

[inside bottom margin] as 1st edition, 1st issue

[outside bottom margin] as 1st edition, 2nd issue

Again, only one minor change, indicating continued tinkering in 1755. Specifically, Worcester is now correctly named in Massachusetts.

NOTE 1: Stevens & Tree (1980) make no mention of this issue, presumably because they paid attention only to map titles, imprints, and gross geographical changes.

[inside bottom margin] as 1st edition, 1st issue

[outside bottom margin] as 1st edition, 2nd issue

The title and copyright dates have not been changed, but Mitchell added two large text blocks in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in the seventh sheet. (The two scale bars in the Atlantic on the first edition were re-engraved -- as four bars -- above the cartouche on the eighth sheet.) The upper text block, in three columns, is a statement about the changes which Mitchell made to the coastal areas of New England, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland as a result of receiving new data. In the first column, Mitchell explicitly refers to this map as the "second edition." The lower text block, in seven columns, is a listing of the data Mitchell used to structure -- and to restructure -- the map.

Other changes include the addition of observations of magnetic variations off the Atlantic coast, labeled with Roman numerals. More importantly, Mitchell redrew the northeastern coast because he redefined the positions of two key headlands: Cape Race was shifted in latitude from 46°55' to 46°35'; Cape Sable was shifted in longitude from 66°35' to 65°35'. A Maine-related detail: "Sagadahook," as on the first edition, was respelled "Sagadahock."

NOTE 1: with respect to dating, the copyright date remains unchanged. Stevens & Tree (1980) give a date of 1757, citing the British Library's catalogue as evidence; that catalogue is however uncertain, and dates the map to "1755 or 57?" The same catalogue's suggestions for dates of later editions are incorrect. I tend to favor 1757 as a publication date for reasons discussed in the narrative account. I nonetheless go with a date range of 1755-57 to highlight the uncertainty.

NOTE 2: Fite & Freeman (1926, 180) originally reproduced one of the third editions, as referred to in the text (p.182); production problems meant that the 1969 Dover reprint (see p. vi) actually reproduces the second edition, although the text has not been changed to reflect this.

[inside bottom margin 1] "Tho: Kitchen Sculp."

[inside bottom margin 2] "Printed by Jefferys and Faden, St. Martins Lane, Charing Cross, London."

[outside bottom margin] "Publish'd by the Author Febry 13th 1755.

This version of the map is recorded only by Stevens & Tree (1980, no.54, 86-87). My presumption is that this entry is the same as the following (first issue), but with an incorrectly transcribed imprint for Jefferys and Faden. The data recorded in this work began with notes which Henry N. Stevens began to collect in 1880; it is possible that an incomplete reference by him was later taken as accurate by Stevens & Tree. Indeed, Stevens & Tree are not as precise as they should have been: they fail to record the words "according to Act of Parliament" in the remains of the first imprint (outside the lower margin) that persist on the later versions of the map. Furthermore, I am very much taken by the failure of Lawrence Martin to record such a version in his extensive researches of the map in the early twentieth century (Martin 1972). Lacking any census of surviving copies of the Mitchell Map, I posted a request in April 1997 to maphist (the cartographic history listserv), asking historians and librarians to bring any copies of this issue to my attention. But none have; on the other hand, overall response to the question was quite slim. This question will have to remain unresolved until a comprehensive census can be undertaken.

[inside bottom margin 1] "Tho: Kitchen Sculp."

[inside bottom margin 2] "Printed for Jefferys and Faden Geographers to the King at the Corner of St. Martins Lane Charing Cross London"

[outside bottom margin] "Publish'd by the Author Febry 13th 1755 according to Act of Parliament"

The contraction of both the engraver's identification and the copyright statement, and the addition of a new publisher's identification, indicate several factors. In the first place, Thomas Kitchen had moved from Clerkenwell Green to Holburn; furthermore, the plates had been acquired by the firm of Jefferys and Faden, and had been updated, before this publication. Stevens & Tree (1980) note that the firm was first entered into the Rate Book in 1773. This suggests that the change in ownership of the plates probably occured after Mitchell's death in 1768.

In addition to the changes in the imprints, further changes have been made to the geographical details. Some boundaries have been altered and many new place-names added.

NOTE: with respect to dating, the map's copyright date of 1755 remains unchanged. The map would however have appeared between 1773, as just noted, and 1775 (see fourth edition, below). There is no real reason why Stevens & Tree (1980) dated this map to 1773 and the second issue of the edition to 1774. A possible reason for this new edition of Mitchell's map -- the passing of the Quebec Act of 1774, with its redefinition of several borders -- is discussed in the narrative account; if this was indeed the case, it would restrict the dates of both issues to 1774-75.

[inside bottom margin 1] as 3rd edition, 1st issue

[inside bottom margin 2] as 3rd edition, 1st issue

[outside bottom margin] as 3rd edition, 1st issue

There are numerous changes, particularly in the realm of boundaries. For example, the straight line marked on earlier maps as the boundary between Canada and the Iroquois (running north of Lake Ontario) has been deleted; a new boundary has been engraved running through Lake Ontario, which for Martin (1972, 109-10) is a key to identifying this issue. Stevens & Tree (1980) also identify lines delimiting territorial claims by both New York and New Jersey as being deleted. NOTE: The imprecision of Stevens' & Tree's (1980) recording of the third edition, first issue means that they interpreted this issue as representing a new edition, because of the change in the imprint of Jefferys and Faden.

[inside bottom margin 1] as 3rd edition, 1st issue

[inside bottom margin 2] as 3rd edition, 2nd issue

[outside bottom margin] as 3rd edition, 1st issue

Stevens & Tree (1980) are of the opinion that the only change since the third edition, second issue is the new title.

NOTE 1: given that the copyright statement still reads 1755, the dating of this edition to 1775 is based on a 1778 catalogue of Faden's maps which includes "A Map of the British Colonies in North America ... on 8 sheets, 1775, Mitchell." Goss (1990, 130) mistakenly dates this edition to 1785, an impossibility as the map was used in the Treaty of Paris negotiations in 1782; he gives a good color reproduction of George III's "red line" map.

NOTE 2: Fite & Freeman (1926) were rather confused as to the meaning of "second edition": at one place (p.182) they stated that the new edition was marked by the change in imprint to Jefferys and Faden; but elsewhere (290-91) they use the retitling of the map as an indication of a "second edition."

An uncolored copy of this edition is reproduced at full-size in North America (1974).