1783 / 1793 Jean Lattré Map of North America

This is an attractively-engraved 1793 Jean Lattré map of North America, showing the new political divisions of the continent following the American Revolution.

A Closer Look

The map covers a broad area, from Terra Firma in South America up to Baffin's Bay and Greenland. Mountains are indicated with hachures. Major rivers are depicted accurately in Mexico and east of the Mississippi watershed. In the west, few details appear beyond some extremely optimistic rivers sprouting as far inland as Montana and Wyoming, thus revealing the lack of knowledge of the mountains making such rivers impossible. The Pacific coast is reasonably well understood, however. The chimera of the Sea of the West is absent here, and there is a note indicating the Russian discoveries in the vicinity of Alaska. A table at the right details the locations of the thirteen states, principal cities, and Indian nations. The table also enumerates the remaining possessions of the French, English and Spanish.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved by Jean Denis Janvier in 1783 for inclusion in Jean Lattré's Petit Atlas Moderne. We are aware of three states of this map, distinguishable by their imprint. The first state bears the imprint A Paris chez Lattré Avec Priv du Roi. The second state, appearing in 1793, is identical but for the partial obliteration of du Roi: Louis XVI had been executed January of that year. The Petit Atlas Moderne would be republished, again without substantial change, in 1800 by Delamarche, when Lattré's imprint was replaced. All three states are dated 1783. We see one separate example of the first state in Birmingham's Jefferson Public Library. We see only a dozen examples of the atlas in institutional collections, five of which correspond to the 1793 edition.