Map/Chart > New England & Maine

Boston Bay

This is a chart of the coastline of Boston Bay from Salem Neck, North of Boston, down to Scituate Harbour in the South.

Chart Information
Reference:	A114
Date	1776
Hydrographer/Surveyor/Artist:	J.F.W. Des Barres, Samuel Holland
Size Of Original:	w 42.5" x h 31"
Paper Type	German Hahnemuhle Etching Paper 310gms

Further Information

Chart ID	Size	Dimensions	Price
A114	Original	w42.5" x h31"	$257
A114x	Half	w30.5" x h22"	$131

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Read the full Chart History here: 

This is an early state of an important chart drawn for publication in the Atlantic Neptune folio. Des Barres compiled and published the chart in November 1776, but it is likely that the surveys it was based on were completed up to two years earlier when Holland and his team were working in the area.  There is no detail or reference of military positions and fortifications. The chart is very plain, without color, and places an emphasis on the features of the land rather than on navigation, although some depth soundings are included.

The surveys and drafts for this chart were undertaken by Samuel Holland, surveyor General of the Northern District of America and his talented team of surveyors who included; Charles Blaskowitz, George Sproule, James Grant and Thomas Wheeler.  Items of note on the chart include: Labeling of ‘ Charles Bay’ (what we now know as ‘ Back Bay’) The town of Weymouth is located the wrong side of the Fore River, closer to where Brantrey or Braintry (now Braintree) is located, but which is omitted from this map. The marking of the ‘Pest House’ on Ransfords Island*, situated south east of Long Island in Boston Bay.  A 'Pest House' was a hospital or hostel used for persons afflicted with communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, or smallpox. It would have been used for forcible quarantine, and was generally sited close to a cemetery or a waste pond for disposal of the dead or, in this case, on an island. The omission of a number of locations and names which one might expect from a survey completed by these men, especially considering the attention given to the detail of relief.  It is likely that a good deal of information was excluded at the time of publication purely due to the haste with which the project was completed. *Rainsford Island (now Rainsford) was formerly called ‘Hospital Island’ and is labelled as such on the Des Barres chart of 1775 depicting the ‘Harbour of Boston’ (see Heritage Charts A102 & A112), and the un-attributed 1769 ‘Chart of Boston Bay showing all of the islands, approaches and sand banks’ (see Heritage Charts A107).