The number of Pennsylvania maps grew in the 18th century, although until late in the century most were published in Europe. Benjamin Franklin during his printing career turned out Lewis Evan's maps, but the American map industry only began to flourish after the Revolutionary War and was centered in Philadelphia and Boston. According to Wheat & Brun, the first atlas published in the United States was The War Atlas by Mathew Carey, Philadelphia 1794, with seven maps but only one of America, and that of lower Florida and the West Indies. The United States Gazetteer by Joseph Scott and Carey's American Atlas, both published in 1795 and both with maps of Pennsylvania, have better claims to being the first real American atlas.

Among the best known maps of Pennsylvania from this century are the following:

A MAP OF PART OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA AND OF THE COUNTIES OF NEWCASTLE, KENT, AND SUSSEX ON THE DELAWARE.... by Benjamin Eastburn. This map has the note 'surveyed in the year 1739', and Eastburn created at least two versions circa 1740. It was used by the Penns in the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary dispute.

A MAP OF PENSILVANIA, NEW JERSEY, NEW YORK, AND THE THREE DELAWARE COUNTIES by Lewis Evans, dated 1749 and apparently the first map of Pennsylvania published in America. Lewis followed this map with his more famous one of 1755.

A MAP OF PHILADELPHIA, AND PARTS ADJACENT, WITH A PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE STATE-HOUSE, BY N. SCULL AND G. HEAP; first published in 1752, this map was reprinted many times and contained the first image of the Pennsylvania State House, later called Independence Hall.

TO THE HONOURABLE THOMAS PENN AND RICHARD PENN THIS MAP OF THE IMPROVED PART OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA IS HUMBLY DEDICATED BY NICHOLAS SCULL, this 1759 map concerns the state itself rather than Philadelphia or the Mid-Atlantic region.

TO THE HONORABLE THOMAS PENN AND RICHARD PENN ESQUIRES THIS MAP OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA IS HUMBLY DEDICATED BY THEIR MOST OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVT:W SCULL; William Scull was the humble grandson of humble Nicholas and published his own map in 1770. It is best known from a version published in 1776 by Sayer & Bennett in Thomas Jeffreys' The American Atlas.

A MAP OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA BY READING HOWELL MDCCXCII, this large 1792 map showed the entire state in more detail than ever before.

The maps are organized by decade as shown by the links below. The century is assumed to begin in 1700 and end in 1799. Similarly a decade begins in 1750, say, and ends in 1759.

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Copyright 2000-2008 by Harold Cramer. All rights reserved.
Last revised: December 15, 2007.