A month after selling approximately $300,000 worth of maps, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has acquired an 18th century map.
The map is a rare copy of “A Map of South Carolina and a Part of Georgia” published by William Faden in 1780, according to a news release from the Foundation. It’s based on a 1757 version made by cartographer William Gerard De Brahm and published by Thomas Jefferys.
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“Colonial Williamsburg collects objects such as the Faden map not only for their inherent beauty, but for their intrinsic value as documents of past peoples, places and events,” said Ronald L. Hurst, the Foundation’s Carlisle H. Humelsine chief curator and vice president for collections, conservation, and museums, in the news release.
While other copies of the map are known to exist, the copy acquired by the Foundation is in pristine condition and is the first known to have become available in decades.
A copy of the earlier version of the map is already in the Colonial Williamsburg collection, but pairing the two together shows a visual comparison about the settling of South Carolinians and Georgians in the western frontiers of their colonies during the time in between the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.
“Remarkably well preserved, the Faden map will be used with other cartographic documents and three-dimensional objects to illustrate the movement of cultural groups from the seacoast to the southern backcountry on the eve of the Revolution,” Hurst said.
The significance of the map begins with its cartographer, De Brahm, who was born in southern Germany and was expelled from Bavaria in 1748 for being protestant. Then in 1751, he led a group of 156 German protestants to settle in Georgia.
In 1752 De Brahm was selected to design and construct a system of fortifications for Charleston and two years later he was appointed surveyor general of South Carolina, according to the Foundation.
During that time, the British Board of Trade realized there would be a war with France and requested that each colony supply maps of their topographical surveys.
De Brahm used his skills as an engineer to create a map that would help colonists that were settling in the wilderness areas of the region.
While the first version of the map was published during the French and Indian War, the second version, purchased by the Foundation, was published in the heat of the American Revolution. By the time it was published, the focus of the war had shifted to the southern colonies and with an interest in the region, Faden altered the copperplate with updated information, according to the Foundation.
The difference between the two copies of the map is so large that some scholars believe them to be two entirely separate maps. This new version showed county names, roadways, new place names and settlements across the entire map. The two versions revealed changes in the 20-year time-span when Britain was focused on expanding into North America and the wilderness of South Carolina was opened up for English settlement.
“It makes sense that when looking to publish a map on the region that Faden would use De Brahm’s map as a template to incorporate new information about these Southern colonies,” said Katie McKinney, Colonial Williamsburg’s assistant curator of maps and prints. “Compared to the earlier version, this map will allow us to better interpret the westward movement of people and objects in the region throughout the 18th century.”
The map is currently not on display and there is no set date for when it will be available for viewing, said Joe Straw, spokesman for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. For more information visit Colonial Williamsburg online.
