The Maryland State Archives Atlas of Historical Maps of Maryland, 1608-1908 - Tapa dura

"Certain to be of enormous value to students of Maryland history... The book is likely to give as much pleasure to the general reader as to the scholar, for it is a handsome object to examine; its text is readable and informative... The combination of maps and text amounts to a brief, illustrated history of the state as well as a cartographical overview... A work of scholarly importance and a great pleasure to peruse."

"This is not your run-of-the-mill coffee-table book... This is an atlas by historians for historians, and the emphasis is upon the maps in their historical context. We learn not only who made the maps, but who owned and used them, how they were used, and what the economics and politics of their compilation and production were... It is a fine atlas, one that should be well known to every student of Maryland history."

Maryland presents cartographers with a formidable test of their skills: unusual natural boundaries, border disputes, and in 1790 the gift of sixty-seven square miles for the creation of the District of Columbia have given the state a distinctively irregular configuration. Since the early seventeenth century, generations of mapmakers have met this challenge with artistic imagination and a variety of cartographical techniques.

In The Maryland State Archives Atlas of Historical Maps of Maryland, 1608–1908, Edward C. Papenfuse and Joseph M. Coale III bring together in one volume the results of these remarkable efforts, from Captain John Smith's 1608 detailed sketch of the region to the map resulting from the Supreme Court's determination of the state's western border in 1908. Utilizing the latest digital imaging and printing technology, the Atlas contains stunning, full-color reproductions of more than 250 of the most significant historical maps from state and federal archives. This handsome and informative collection―a thoroughly updated and greatly expanded version of the authors' landmark book, The Hammond-Harwood House Atlas of Historical Maps of Maryland (1982)―provides an in-depth history of mapmaking in Maryland and charts the state's early settlement patterns.