J. B. ELIOT (1778) Carte du Théatre de la Guerre actuel entre les Anglais et les Treize Colonies Unies de l’Amerique Septentrionale dressée par J.B. Eliot Ingenieurs [sic] des Etats Unis

J. B. Eliot

Carte du Théatre de la Guerre actuel entre les Anglais et les Treize Colonies Unies de l’Amerique Septentrionale dressée par J.B. Eliot Ingenieurs [sic] des Etats Unis

Paris: Louis Mondhare, 1778. First edition, second state.

31 ¼” x 22” sheet, 36 ¾” x 28” framed.

Float-mounted and framed (full margins, showing the plate mark). With some creasing and tanning at the margins. Minor chips and losses to margins. Engraved, with original hand-colour in outline. Cartouche of troops engaged in battle.

The rare second state of J.B. Eliot’s Map of the Theater of the (Revolutionary) War in the United States, the first state of which is widely considered the earliest use of the title United States (“États Unis”) on a printed map. As was usually the case, Eliot’s map is drawn from several sources, some not previously used on any printed maps, with some areas designated by French place-names while others are predominantly English, specifically in the northwestern territories.

While four states of this map were issued, all considered rare, the first and second states of the map are thought to be essentially unobtainable, leading authorities such as Pritchard & Taliaferro to describe the third and fourth as the first and second. In fact, there is only one known example of the first state of the map, currently at Princeton (copy 2); easily distinguishable by the absence of “Mer du Nord” in the North Atlantic. There are two known examples of the second state: one at the Library of Congress (G3710 1778 .E41) and the present item. The second state is of particular interest in that it includes additional troop details for the Battle of Saratoga, a turning point for the Revolutionary war and the impetus for French recognition of American independence.

In Degrees of Latitude, Pritchard and Taliferro discuss the importance of this map at length, explaining why a French map was the first to print “United States:” “on November 15, 1777, the Continental Congress selected ‘The United States of America,’ as the name of the thirteen colonies that formed a government under the Articles of Confederation. One month later, French authorities learned of the victory at Saratoga and decided to recognize American independence.” By 6 February 1778, the Treaty of Alliance was signed between France and the Second Continental Congress, formalizing the French support of the revolutionary government in America and spurring both military support as well as the French cartographic interest in the region. The results of this alliance are found in J.B. Eliot’s seminal revolutionary war map of the “Etats Unis.” With the support of the French, the United States was able to overthrow British monarchic rule, doubtlessly inspiring the French to catalyze their own revolution a decade later. It is therefore not entirely surprising that the first printed map to name the United States was on this map published in Paris in 1778.

There remains, however, a mystery to this map: its mapmaker. As Pritchard and Taliferro note, despite J.B. Eliot being immortalized as the “Ingénieurs des Etats Unis” in the first two states, and in the third and fourth as “Aide de Campe du Générale Washington”, there appears to be no information on him beyond two maps credited to his name published by Mondhare. While it was speculated that J.B. Eliot may have been a liaison between General Washington and France, no references to him have been located in Washington’s papers. No references are made in U.S. army records or in personal accounts of the period either, nor does anything come up in the French archives or in the Bibliothèque nationale de France’s Department des Cartes et Plans. Curiously, he also did not indicate on the map the general’s 1777 winter headquarters at Valley Forge, which is spelled as “Walay Forge” in the present copy. The only rational conclusion would be that J.B Eliot is a fabrication, perhaps a useful tool employed by Mondhare to obfuscate the piracy that was involved in the map’s creation.

Pritchard & Taliaferro, Degrees of Latitude 58; Schwartz & Ehrenberg, The Mapping of America pl. 122; Phillips, Maps of America 859.