Beschreibung:

A Map exhibiting a General View of the Roads and Inland Navigation of Pennsylvania, and part of the adjacent states.
Philadelphia: c. 1792]. Engraved map, hand-colored in outline (880 x 960 mm). Sectioned and linen-backed at a contemporary date. Inset “Perspective View of Part of a Canal with Locks.” Manuscript additions to the map including locations of roads, bridges, portages and proposed turnpikes, accomplished in pencil and traced over in ink at a later date (by McAllister?). Condition : light overall toning. Provenance : D. W. Coxe (signature on verso); John McAllister, Jr. (signature on verso). important early map of the state showing planned internal improvements for western settlement . Following the American Revolution, Pennsylvania bought what land remained in the state from its native tribes, and from the Federal Government attained the rights to the “Erie Triangle” in the northwesternmost portion of the state. Land speculation and surveying of the western portions of the state began in earnest and The Society for Promoting the Improvement of Roads and Inland Navigation was formed in 1789 with Robert Morris as President. Amongst those involved with both the Society and the surveying of the state were John Adlum and John Wallis. Wallis was the eldest son of Samuel Wallis, among the largest land speculators, or “land-jobbers” as they were called at the time. Adlum, born in York Pennsylvania, began working as an independent surveyor at Northumberland in the mid-1780s and in 1787 was appointed to help survey the northern boundary of the state. “In April, 1790, [Adlum] was appointed with Timothy Matlack and Samuel Maclay to a commission to explore the ‘western waters’ and find the best routes of communication into Pennsylvania's new lands” (Kent & Deardorff). In 1791, Robert Morris on behalf of the Society, submitted to the Pennsylvania Legislature “A proposal and plan for carrying into immediate execution the improvement of roads and inland navigation.” That document concludes with the report that the “Society have directed an accurate geographical and hydrogrical map to be compiled from actual surveys, exhibiting a general and compleat view of the roads and water communications, which are proposed to be improved, connecting them with the roads and water communications of the neighboring states” (published within William Smith’s An Historical Account of the Rise, Progess and Present State of the Canal Navigation in Pennsylvania). While not as detailed as Reading Howell’s important map of Pennsylvania, the Adlum-Wallis map more clearly depicts both existing, planned and proposed roads and canals, and shows much more of Pennsylvania’s neighboring states, suggesting that Morris was referring to this map. very rare. Kent & Deardorff, “John Adlum on the Allegheny” in PMHB, vol. 84, no. 3; Phillips, p. 679; Wheat & Brun 432.