Antique North American Map Reproductions

Carte Reduite du Golphe du Mexique, et des Isles de l'Amerique , Bellin, Jacques Nicolas, Paris, 1749

A reproduction of a hand-colored copper plate engraved map. Original size: 21 inches X 32-1/2 inches.

Jacques Nicolas Bellin worked as the Depot de la Marine's senior hydrographic engineer beginning in 1721 and wrote a multi volume publication on Gulf Navigation in 1749, published as the chart atlas Hydrographic Francais from which this map is believed to have been taken. Bellin is considered the most influential chart publisher in eighteenth-century France during a period when France was a major colonial power and land holder in North America.

The Florida Everglades are treated as an archipelago in this example, following the lead of other French map makers such as Buache and Moll. As exploration continued, later versions of this map would be corrected to a more modern configuration.

Many important landmarks are identified in this map including "Cap Cannaveral", "St. Angnsun", and "Baye St. Louis".

Religionis Catholicae In America Boreali Disseminatae Repraesentatio Geographica , Scherer, Heinrich, Munich, 1703

A reproduction of a hand-colored copper plate engraved map. Original size: 8-/12 inches X 13-1/2 inches.

This is German cartographer Heinrich Scherer's map of North America depicting California as an island, a myth that would later be discredited by the famous missionary Father Eusebio Kino.

The map is from Sherer's Atlas Novus, first published in Munich between 1702 and 1710, and it charts the religious outposts in the New World, including Santa Fe, New Mexico and St. Augustine, Florida.

This map has a highly decorative Catholic cartouche depicting native Americans worshiping a crucifix.