Map/Chart > Maine & New England

A plan of Rhode Island with the adjacent islands and coast of Narragansett Bay

A small and charming map with subtle colours outlining the coastline, roads and settlements with individual buildings marked.

Description

No signature or date is shown, but the chart is very much in the 'style' (including the scrip, colouring and general composition) of Thomas Wheeler.  In 1774 Charles Blaskowitz and Wheeler were commissioned to revisit the Narragansett area in order to help complete Samuel Holland's great survey of the Eastern sea board of the United States.  Blaskowitz had been responsible for the initial survey of the area completed as early as 1764, for the Board of Admiralty.  The survey work completed by Blaskowitz and later Wheeler between 1765 and 1774 is directly related to the 1776 Des Barres chart of the same area entitled 'A chart of the harbour of Rhode Island and Narragansett Bay'  and the later more stylised version held in this collection (see Heritage Chart A106).  It was also the basis for the the now famous 1777 Faden map 'A Topographical Chart of the Bay of Narraganset', which may be found in the collection of the Library of Congress.  The survey work from this time is also included in the 1779 chart of New England from Chatham Harbour to Narragansett Bay (A115) by John Knight and Des Barres.  All of the later charts share an almost identical use of place names and detail and were likely based on this earlier 1774 survey.  No fathoms or soundings are shown, but detail of land features such as fields, hills, roads and settlements are.