1796 – Map of Virginia from The American Universal Geography.

The Map

This map of Virginia was engraved by Samuel Hill and published in 1796 by Jedidiah Morse for his New American Universal Geography, one the first textbooks on American geography published in the United States. The map focuses on the topographical features of Virginia, along with naming its major towns, including Shepherdstown and Winchester.

The Map Makers

Samuel Hill (c. 1765 – c. 1809) was an engraver who worked in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His engravings were published in periodicals and books of the time with illustrations that ranged from maps, to literary characters and scenes, to landscapes, and portraits.

Jedidiah Morse (1761 – 1826) was an American Congregational minister and geographer who authored the first textbook on American geography published in the United States, Geography Made Easy (1784).

Such was the success of Geography Made Easy that 25 editions were made during his lifetime. The work that firmly established his reputation as the “Father of American Geography” was The American Geography, first published in 1789 and known in later editions as The American Universal Geography. This book was followed by a work for children, Elements of Geography (1795), The American Gazetteer (1797), and A New Gazetteer of the Eastern Continent (1802).  His subsequent geographical writings dominated the field in the United States until his death in 1826.

The inventor Samuel F.B. Morse (1791–1872) was his eldest son.

Map courtesy of the Library of Virginia. Portrait courtesy of Yale University.