1780 Carver / Pingeling Map of the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi

First English exploraiton fo the Upper Mississippi.

This is the 1780 German edition of Jonathan Carver's map illustrating his pioneering travels in the Upper Mississippi Valley, including parts of modern-day Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. Carver was the first Englishman to penetrate this region and map it in any detail, making this a significant piece, replete with novel information and fascinating annotations, offering some of the earliest insights into life and travel in this, at the time, near-impenetrable frontier.

A Closer Look

This is a re-engraved German issue of the map A Plan of Captain Carver's Travels in the interior Parts of North America, first published in English in 1778. Coverage embraces the Upper Midwest from the Lake of the Woods to Lake Huron, and from northern Lake Superior, south as far as the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers.

Carver attempts to illustrate the territories of various American Indian nations, though his straight, rectangular boundary lines are distinctly European and belie the ambiguity of indigenous American territorial ranges.

Key trade routes are illustrated throughout, particularly interesting is the route connecting the Mississippi with Lake Superior along the Chippewa River. These include interesting annotations such as 'Traders go no farther than these falls' and 'seldom travel this way except War Parties.' The whole of it would have been novel content to 18th-century Englishmen interested in profiting from the new territory. The network of lakes and rivers connecting Lake Superior to the Lake of the Woods would have been particularly alluring, suggesting a possible inland waterway connecting to the Pacific.

Carver's Explorations

Jonathan Carver's exploration of the Upper Mississippi Valley between 1766 and 1768 represents one of the earliest British efforts to investigate the interior of North America following the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763). His work combines geographic curiosity, imperial ambition, and commercial interests. Traveling west from the Great Lakes, Carver journeyed along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, befriending the Dakota (Sioux), whose knowledge proved essential to his navigation and understanding of regional geography. He sought not only to map the river systems and identify a possible inland passage to the Pacific, but also to assess economic opportunities and strengthen British influence in the former French territories. Carver's observations, published in his Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, detailed landscape, wildlife, and Native societies, and include one of the earliest attempts to locate the source of the Mississippi. Although the facts of his narrative have been questioned, his work shaped European and American perceptions of the region and influenced subsequent exploration, including Lewis and Clark. Carver's journey represents a transitional moment in North American exploration, bridging French trader penetration and the expanding British interest in trans-Appalachia.

Publication History and Census

This is a German issue of Carver's 1778 A Plan of Captain Carver's Travels in the interior Parts of North America. This German edition is scarce, more so than the original, and dates to about 1780. It was engraved in Hamburg by Thomas Albrecht Pingeling. The overall execution and printing are superior to the English edition. We see only a single example of the separate map in OCLC, held by Michigan State University.

Cartographers

Thomas Albrecht Pingeling (August 19, 1727 - July 16, 1803) was a German engraver based in Hamburg. He trained under his father Gottfried Christian Pingeling (1688 - 1769), who had learned the craft from Martin Bernigeroth (1670 - 1733)/ Pingeling the elder moved from his native Saxony to Hamburg with a fellow engraver Christian Fritzsch (1695 - 1769) around 1720 and remained there afterwards. The father-son Pingeling excelled at engraving and their workshop was among the most celebrated in Hamburg in the mid-late 18th century (even working for clients as far away as London and St. Petersburg). They engraved maps, plates, illustrations, and other works for a wide variety of publications at the height of the Enlightenment. After his father's death and operating the firm alone for a time, Thomas Albrecht Pingeling took on Johann Thomas Hagemann (1771 - 1853) as an apprentice and then business partner.   Further Details...

Jonathan Carver (April 13, 1710 - January 31, 1780) was an American explorer, cartographer, and writer active during the colonial period. He was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts and, During the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763), saw action with the famous 'Roger's Rangers'. During the war, he was able to learn mathematics and military surveying. He was elevated to captain and given charge of a regiment in 1761. When the war ended, Carver was determined to explore the new British territories ceded by the Treaty of Paris. In 1766, he was hired by the leader of Robert's Rangers, frontiersman and Royal Governor Robert Rogers (1731 - 1795), to join an expedition in search of an interior water route between the Mississippi and the Pacific. With Rogers, he explored parts of the Upper Mississippi basin in modern-day Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. In 1769, the expedition ended with significant new cartography. Carver believed he may have found a water route to the Pacific - likely the Missouri. In the meantime, Rogers, his patron, was arrested and court-martialed for treason. Carver was caught in the fallout from Rogers' court-martial, and his discoveries were never formally recognized. Seeking redress from the crown, Carver traveled to England, where his requests were heard, though he never received his hoped-for reward for discovering the Northwest Passage. Carver's cartographic information was passed to Robert Sayer, who incorporated some of it into his maps. While in England, Carver also completed his memoirs, published in 1778 as Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, in the Years 1766, 1767 and 1768. He died one year later in 1780. In 1804, several of Carver's descendants portioned the U.S. Congress for ownership of an extensive land grant in Wisconsin Territory - the Carver Grant - apparently ceded to him by the Sioux in exchange for 'many gifts'. The U.S. Congress denied the (probably) fraudulent claims, and the grant was voided despite appearing on maps well into the 1840s.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Slight wear on old fold lines. Edge wear.