1796 Reid / Tanner Map of Virginia

This is John Reid's 1796 map of the state of Virginia, engraved by Benjamin Tanner for Reid's An American Atlas. It was only the second atlas map of Virginia published in the United States and is one of the earliest obtainable maps of Virginia as a U.S. state.

A Closer Look

The map covers from the Ohio River in the west to the Chesapeake Bay in the east. Aside from Virginia, portions of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina appear, along with a reference to the Northwest Territory across the Ohio River. Mountains and waterways are carefully detailed. Towns, courthouses, county names, Native American settlements, roads, and other features are labeled throughout. The eastern half of the state is covered in much greater depth, reflecting the concentration of people there and their relatively limited knowledge of the western frontier.

This map is especially notable for its early inclusion of Washington, D.C., still in a developmental phase. Nearby Georgetown, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon are also noted. The city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, also makes an early appearance at top. In the years and months before this map's publication, the area around Pittsburgh and into northern and western Virginia was ground zero for the Whiskey Rebellion (1791 - 1794), a tense standoff over the limits of federal authority in the new republic.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved by Benjamin Tanner in 1796 for John Reid's An American Atlas. It was based on the map of Virginia engraved by Samuel Lewis that appeared in Matthew Carey's American Atlas the year prior (Rumsey 2542.013 and 2931.037), though there are subtle differences between the two. Aside from the Rumsey Collection, the Library of Congress and the American Antiquarian Society have independently cataloged a physical example, though facsimiles and digitized examples populate the OCLC, while the entire atlas is more widely distributed in institutional collections.