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[NORMAN, John] - William NORMAN (1748-1817)
[Coastal Maine] A Chart of the Coast of America from Wood Island to Good Harbour From Hollands Surveys
[Boston: William Norman, 1791-1801]. Copper-engraved sea chart, in very good condition. Sheet size: 21 1/4 x 33 5/8 inches.
State two of the second sea chart of the Maine coast to be published in America, from William Norman's "The American Pilot." State one of this chart lacks the title, which Wheat & Brun identify as first appearing on state two. They further note that state two was first published in the 1803 edition of the atlas. The present example of state two was included in an example of the exceedingly rare 1801 edition, unknown to Wheat & Brun, and it is possible that the alteration was undertaken before the close of the 18th century
The American Revolution brought an end to Britain's leading role in the mapping of America. The task now fell to the American publishing industry, still in its infancy, but with first-hand access to the new surveys that were documenting the rapid growth of the nation. In particular, there was a need for nautical charts for use by the expanding New England commercial fleets. The first American marine atlas, Mathew Clark's A Complete Set of Charts of the Coast of America, was published in Boston in 1790.
Two of Clark's charts had been engraved by John Norman, who was inspired to launch his own enterprise. On Jan. 1, 1790, Norman advertised in the Boston Gazette the publication of A New General Chart of the West Indies, with a notice stating that he was currently engraving charts of all the coast of America on a large scale. These were assembled and published as The American Pilot, Boston, 1791. Norman's Pilot, the second American marine atlas, indeed the second American atlas of any kind, marked an advance over the earlier work of Mathew Clark.
New editions of the Norman's Pilot appeared in 1792 and 1794, and after John Norman's death, his son, William, brought out editions in 1794, 1798, 1801, and 1803. Despite the seemingly large number of editions, The American Pilot is one of the rarest of all American atlases, and one of only a small handful published in the eighteenth century. Wheat and Brun (pps. 198-199) locate just ten complete copies for the first five editions: 1791 (Huntington, Harvard); 1792 (LC, Clements); 1794(1) (LC, JCB, Boston Public); 1794(2) (Yale); 1798 (LC, Boston Public).
Cf. Wheat & Brun, Maps & Charts Published in America before 1800,166; cf. Suarez, Shedding the Veil, p. 164.
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#16367 $17,500.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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