Colles, Eliza
Elizabeth Colles (1775 - 1799) or Eliza, was an American engraver of Irish descent, the daughter of visionary inventory and mapmaker, Christopher Colles. She was the first American female map engraver. Working for her father, Eliza engraved many of the plates for A Survey of the Roads of the United States, the first American road book, and the unpublished/unfinished Geographical Ledger (New York plate, Canada/Vermont Plate, and the two diagrams in the index). Eliza was probably taught engraving by either her father or Cornelius Tiebout, and appears to have become involved with the Colles Survey of Roads at just 13 years of age, when her father, Christopher Colles, had a falling out with Tiebout. Her name is often represented as Eliza Coles. Elizabeth died at 23 or 24, probably in the 1799 Yellow Fever Epidemic.
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