Rare Kentucky Maps
Our collection of rare early Kentucky maps displays the extent of activity in the state during early statehood, when the 15 star and 15 stripe flag was the official US flag. These maps were produced by talented engravers from good surveys of the state, and printed in the US and overseas. Bourbon continues to put Kentucky “on the map” around the world, and we strive to honor Kentucky by having our fine aged bourbons be among the very best.
Filson’s Map of Kentucke, 1784
Created in Lexington, KY by John Filson with input from Daniel Boone.
Gallery
Filson’s Map of Kentucke, 1784
John Filson’s 1784 map of Kentucky is an icon of early American map making, created in Lexington, Kentucky with input from Daniel Boone.
This 1784 Map of Kentucke by John Filson is the only known surviving copy outside of institutional collections. Filson was the first historian of Kentucky, and this is the first map of Kentucky ever produced. It was created less than 10 years after Daniel Boone opened the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and was produced with the help of Boone and other noted frontiersmen of Kentucky. Since there was no printer in Kentucky at the time, Filson took the map east to be printed along with his book. Filson engaged Henry D. Pursell as engraver and Tenoor Rook as the printer of the map.
The inscription reads:
This Map of KENTUCKE, Drawn from actual Observations, is inscribed with the most perfect respect, to the Honorable the Congress of the United States of America; and to his Excell.cy George Washington late Commander in Chief of their Army. By their Humble Servant, John Filson.
Printed from an engraving, at 19 ½”h x 17 ¾”w plus margins, with a sheet size 24”h x 19”w. The reverse includes strips of linen applied to the upper and lower edges, with the linen docketed by an early hand in ink “Kentucke J.n Filson’s” in four places, and with two, more recently but still aged applied paper labels, both with “Map of Kentucky – 1784” in type.
Filson’s map of Kentucky is one of the great rarities of early Kentucky and Virginia cartography and rightly described by Nebenzahl as “a monument of American map-making from the nation’s earliest period.” And this example with superlative provenance.
Filson prepared the map to illustrate his seminal work, THE DISCOVERY, SETTLEMENT And present State of KENTUCKE, published in Wilmington, Delaware in 1784. The title page bears the notice “The Whole illustrated by a new and accurate MAP of Kentucke and the Country adjoining, drawn from actual Surveys …”. However, few extant copies of the book include the map, and it was frequently advertised and sold separately.[1] In any event the example of the map offered here was certainly sold as separate, as it bears no folds or other signs of having been bound.
Filson’s work is credited as the first reliable account, textual and cartographic, of the strategic frontier territory south of the Ohio River (Nebenzahl). The region then belonged to Virginia, which had ceded its claims north and west of the Ohio in 1784 but retained vast claims south of the Ohio and west to the Mississippi until Kentucky gained statehood in 1792. Appended to the Discovery is the first account of the exploits of Daniel Boone, which is widely thought to have been inspiration for the modern “myth” surrounding him.
This Map of Kentucke is roughly centered on Lexington, where Filson based himself, and covers a region bounded by the Ohio River to the north and the Cumberland River to the south, and from the longitude of the Great Sandy Creek (noted as “321 Miles below Fort Pitt”) west to just beyond the Ohio River. The focus is on Kentucky’s three original counties of Fayette, Jefferson and Lincoln… thus, most of the eastern half of the present day state of Kentucky.
The map is the first to concentrate on this region and marks a very great advance over earlier, smaller-scale maps as well as over other maps issued in the immediate, post-Revolutionary period. Nebenzahl describes the map crisply and places it in this broader cartographic context:
“The most significant published maps encompassing the area had been those by John Mitchell and Lewis Evans in 1755, Thomas Pownall in 1776, and Thomas Hutchins in 1778. Filson’s delineation is a considerable improvement over its predecessors. He includes symbols representing ‘Stations or Fort. Salt Springs & Licks. Towns. Dwelling-houses and Mills. Wigwams (Indian villages). Roads; some Clear’d, others not.” Among the towns are ‘Harrod’s Town’, (Harrodsburg, established in 1774 by Filson’s friend), the first permanent settlement in Kentucky. Also indicated are Daniel Boon’s home, southeast of Lexington, his ‘Station on the road between Lexington and Louisville, and his establishments at ‘Boon’s Creek’ on the road from Cumberland Gap. Important maps of the United States by Abel Buell and William McMurray appeared the same year as Filson’s ‘Kentucke.’ Neither, however, portrayed the accuracy and detail that Filson, residing in Lexington and concentrating on the areas of Kentucky’s first three counties, provided.” (“The Filson map re-examined”, The Map Collector, no. 56 (Autumn 1991), p.40)
In keeping with Filson’s promotional objectives, both text and map emphasize the fertility of the country. In this regard, one slightly puzzling feature of the map is the repeated mention of “Fine Cane, “Abundance of Cane”, and the like. This, it turns out, is a reference to any of three similar species of the genus Arundinaria, North America’s only native variety of bamboo, which grew in dense thickets in Kentucky’s fertile bottomlands but is now found only in tiny patches. According to Filson’s Discovery, cane provided excellent forage for cattle, who “feed, and grow fat” on it (p. 19). One theory has it that the name “Kentucky” arose from the region’s abundance of cane.
Background
European settlement of Kentucky began in 1775. The Transylvania Company commissioned Daniel Boone to cut a trail to Kentucky via the Cumberland Gap. This trail became one of the preferred land routes into Kentucky and is shown as a dotted line on the far southeast quadrant of the map. Also in 1775 Boone established the fortified village of Boonesborough (“Boonsburg” on the map) on the south bank of the Kentucky River at its junction with Otter Creek. This was one of the first American settlements west of the Appalachians.
Settlement was curtailed by the Revolutionary War due in part to the chaotic and insecure situation on the western frontier. Indeed, the Battle of Blue Licks, one of the last land battles of the Revolutionary War, was fought on August 19, 1782, on the north bank of Kentucky’s Licking River (marked on the map as “bloody battle fought here”). There, a force of American militia, with Boone one of the commanders, was comprehensively defeated by a combined force of British and their native American allies… though peace negotiations had already begun in Paris in April of that year.
At the end of the war, attention again turned westward. The Federal and state governments were impoverished and sought to profit from land sales and by granting bounty-land warrants to compensate discharged veterans and promote settlement on unsettled lands. The Continental Congress passed the Ordinance of 1784, which provided for the creation of new territories west of the Appalachians, with the possibility of accession to statehood once their populations reached a certain level (This was followed in 1785 by another Ordinance, which provided for the surveying and sale of Western lands.) The Land Office for the Virginia Military District opened near Louisville in July 1784 to handle warrants.[2] Filson’s map has the comment against the lower border, “Land reserved for the Virginia Troops; extending to the | Carolina Line, which runs parrallel [sic] with the bottom of this Map. in 36 N. Lat.”
Indeed, Filson was one of the earliest purchasers of land in Kentucky, acquiring 13,500 acres near Lexington (founded in 1782), hoping to move into land speculation. He settled in Lexington, working first as a surveyor and then as a school teacher, but continuing in surveying as a side hustle. Thus, his Discovery, Settlement, And present State of Kentucke paints a picture of Kentucky as an unspoiled paradise ripe for settlement, an implicit promotion of his own land-speculation ventures.
The text is also significant for the forward-thinking emphasis Filson places on the relationship of Kentucky to the Mississippi River, particularly the downriver city of New Orleans, suggesting that the future of Kentucky lay looking to the South and West, rather than to the East.
John Filson
Filson (1747-1788) was born in Pennsylvania. He served with the Pennsylvania militia in the Revolutionary War and was captured by the British at the Battle of Fort Washington during the 1776 New York campaign. After the war he relocated to Lexington, in the then-western Virginia county of Fayette, where he worked as a land surveyor and compiled his book and map. Filson worked remarkably quickly, in that the map and book were completed within about a year. Evidently, he relied heavily on the assistance of several settlers, as acknowledged on the map, crediting among others Daniel Boone and Harrodsburg founder James Harrod as principal sources.
In 1784, Filson travelled to Wilmington, Delaware to arrange publication with James Adams. The map was engraved in Philadelphia by Henry D. Pursell (1750-1791), a little-known figure, who had an itinerant career as an engraver in New York, Philadelphia, and finally Charleston, South Carolina, where he died.
In August 1784, Filson announced in the Pennsylvania Packet that his book and map were “preparing in the press”,[3] and on October 22nd he announced publication.[4] Both announcements clearly stated that the book was to be “illustrated by a new and accurate map of Kentucke”, but as mentioned previously very few copies of the book are known to have the map. Indeed, per RareBookHub, the last copy of the book to appear at auction with the map was the Robert Hoe copy, which sold at Anderson Galleries in 1921 (George D. Smith Sale, Part Seven, May 9, 1921). The book has since appeared at auction no fewer than 21 times, always lacking the map.
The first edition of 1500 copies of the book, sold relatively quickly, though sadly there is no record of the number of maps run off the press. Filson continued to work on revising and improving the map and text, even writing to George Washington on December 4, 1784 seeking his endorsement for a second edition of the book. However, a January 6, 1785 reply seems to have declined to offer such an endorsement, and these plans came to naught.
In 1788 Filson bought a share in an 800-acre parcel on the north bank of the Ohio across from the mouth of the Licking River—this locale is shown on this map, just below the table of “Explanation” at top. He laid out a town, awkwardly named “Losantiville”, but disappeared later that year while on a surveying expedition along the Great Miami River, after it was attacked by a party of Shawnees. The site of Losantiville was sold on to other parties and eventually became the nucleus of modern-day Cincinnati.
The map, despite being available for a relatively short period, is recorded in no fewer than ten states. This sequence was developed in Wheat & Brun’s Maps and Charts Published in America Before 1800 and then expanded by dealer Kenneth Nebenzahl, who in 1991 announced the discovery of an unrecorded first state. The Library of Congress purchased that example from Nebenzahl in 2000 and we are unaware of any other examples, of any state, to have appeared on the market since then.
These ten states must have appeared with some rapidity as states 1 to 4 are each recorded in a single example, state 5 is known in two examples, state 6 in seven, state 7 in four, states 8 and 9 each in one, and state 10 in six (including this example). The later states have only very minor geographical amendments; this 10th adds an Indian trail, denoted by a dashed line, which extends almost due south from the mouth of the “Sciotha R” to join the “Warrior’s Path” below the county label “LINCOLN”. All of the above examples are in institutional collections.
The provenance of this example is superlative, as it was deaccessioned by the Moravian Archives Southern Province in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We quote from a short study recently completed by Sabrina Garity, Assistant Archivist at the Archives.
“Until it was recently acquired, this map was held by the Moravian Archives Southern Province in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This Archive was first mentioned in Church records in 1762 and contains documents, maps, books, and papers of the Moravian towns of Bethabara, Bethania, and Salem in what was then known as the Wachovia Tract in North Carolina, with the first town, Bethabara, established in 1753. This map, like many others in the MASP Collection, was owned not by an individual but by the town and made accessible to the community of Salem and any travelers using Salem as a stop on their journey. It also would have been used in the extensive geography lessons taught at the Salem Boys School as well as the Salem Girls School.
“Frederic William Marshall, the Chief Administrator of the Wachovia settlement, was well versed in surveying and cartography, and there is much evidence of his own personal pursuit of mapmaking. The Map of Kentucke was purchased on September 29th, 1787, by Marshall and is listed under the town expenses in the ledger… and day books… —one which lists the specific date and one which details the other purchases made under the “Sundry Account to Bethlehem Administration.” In both ledgers, the price is listed as 8 Shillings paid in cash. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was the other major Moravian Settlement at this time and many goods were traded back and forth between the two regions.”
A very great rarity and one of the most important American maps of the immediate post-Revolutionary era.
References
The Church Catalogue, vol. V no. 1202 (the book and the map). English Short-Title Catalogue, #W20217 (This records 32 examples of the book, but it is unclear how many contain the map.) Jillson, Willard Rouse, Early Kentucky Maps (1673-1825) Part 2, p. 32. Nebenzahl, Kenneth, “The Filson Map Re-Examined”, The Map Collector, no. 56 (Autumn 1991), pp. 40-45. Sabin, Dictionary of Books Relating to America, #24336. Wheat & Brun, Maps And Charts Published In America Before 1800, #639 (state 10).
[1] Beginning in August 1785, when the first edition of the book had likely sold out, through September 1787, advertisements appear just for the map, with the Philadelphia publisher Joseph Crukshank the most frequent advertiser.
[2] https://www.sos.ky.gov/land/military/Pages/default.aspx
[3] “Is now preparing for the Press, and will be published by the first of October next, in large Octavo, stitched in blue Paper, A TOPOGRAPHICAL HISTORY and MAP of the present State of KENTUCKE, the Western Territory of Virginia: containing an Account of the Discovery and Settlement of that favoured Region, and the Natural History thereof … The whole illustriated <sic> by a new and accurate Map of Kentucke, and part of the country adjoining, placed in the history; printed for the curious and interested, and will be of public utility. Hopeing this Performance will merit acceptance and encouragement, the Author expects it will be patronized by Gentlemen previous to its publication” (Pennsylvania Packet, issue 1736, August 7, 1784, p. 3)
[4] “THIS DAY IS PUBLISHED, (Price One Dollar and a Half) And to be sold by DUNLAP & CLAYPOOLE, Philadelphia, and JAMES ADAMS, in Wilmington, THE Discovery, Settlement, and present State of KENTUCKY … The whole illustrated by a new and accurate map of Kentucke, and part of the Indian territory adjoining, drawn from actual observations, by John Filson” (Pennsylvania Packet, issue 1782, October 22, 1784, p. 3)
Filson’s Kentucky, Paris 1785
The Filson map is one of the most rare and prized maps of Kentucky. This French version demonstrates the interest in Kentucky in Europe in the 1780’s.
GalleryFilson’s Kentucky, Paris 1785
The Filson map is one of the most rare and prized maps of Kentucky. This French version demonstrates the interest in Kentucky in Europe in the 1780’s.
John Filson wrote “The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke” and travelled to Wilmington, Delaware, to have it published in the summer of 1784. For the publication, he also had a “Map of Kentucke” engraved and printed in Philadelphia.
The 15 STARS Collection version of Filson’s map is the French translated version published in 1785. John Filson was an early Kentucky settler and promoter for whom the Filson Historical Society in Louisville is named. He acquired over 12,000 acres of western lands and moved to Kentucky settling in Lexington in 1783. He taught school, surveyed land claims, and travelled the region interviewing the settlers and promoting Kentucky. His interviews and stories of Daniel Boone played a large role in creating the iconic image of the frontiersman.
Carey’s Map of Kentucky, 1795
This original map of Kentucky was published in 1795 by Matthew Carey in his publication on American geography.
GalleryCarey’s Map of Kentucky, 1795
This original map of Kentucky was published in 1795 by Matthew Carey in his publication on American geography.
This rare map from 1795 is an excellent example of Matthew Carey’s map of Kentucky, based upon the earlier surveys of Elihu Barker, and published in Carey’s “American Edition of Guthrie’s Geography” in 1795. The map extends into the Northwest Territory, and tracks much of the Wabash River to Prairie Meadow and St. Vincents. The map shows counties, towns, roads, Indian paths and villages, rivers, mountains, creeks, springs, forts, and other early details. The map is based upon an original manuscript map drawn by Elihu Barker. Kentucky obtained statehood in 1792, with Barker’s map being the first large format map of the state. While there is no record of a survey upon which the map is based, Willard Jillson believed that Barker’s map was by far the most accurate of early Kentucky maps. The size of this map is 20.5” X 10”.
Kentucky and Adjoining Territories
In 1795, John Reid published this rare map of Kentucky which includes the surrounding NW and SW US territories that existed then.
GalleryKentucky and Adjoining Territories
In 1795, John Reid published this rare map of Kentucky which includes the surrounding NW and SW US territories that existed then.
This map of the state of Kentucky with the adjoining territories (1795) was engraved by A. Anderson, and published by John Reid in New York in 1796 within his publication of “The American Atlas”. This map primarily shows the region around the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers, from northern Georgia to the Western Territory. It also includes most of Tennessee, referred to as the “Southwestern Territory” on this map. North of the Ohio River is part of the Northwest Territory, with Fort Washington shown. In addition, this map depicts early towns and roads, rivers, mountain ranges, roads, boundary lines, counties, court houses, and other areas of interest including New Madrid and Harman Station, the first permanent settlement in eastern Kentucky. The map is surrounded by scale notations and line border. Its size is 14 7/8″ H x 17 1/2″.
Scott’s Map of Kentucky, 1795
This original map of Kentucky from 1795 was published in Joseph Scott’s US Gazetteer.
GalleryScott’s Map of Kentucky, 1795
This original map of Kentucky from 1795 was published in Joseph Scott’s US Gazetteer.
This early map of Kentucky was published in Joseph Scott’s US Gazetteer in 1795. It is of a small size of 7.5” X 6”, but still shows the key cities, counties, rivers, mountains, paths, and forts of the time. It identifies the NW Territory and SW territory bounding the new state of Kentucky.
Payne’s Map of Kentucky, 1800
A rare map printed in 1800, Payne’s map of Kentucky and Adjoining Territories is a smaller version of Russell’s 1794 map.
GalleryPayne’s Map of Kentucky, 1800
A rare map printed in 1800, Payne’s map of Kentucky and Adjoining Territories is a smaller version of Russell’s 1794 map.
Payne’s map of Kentucky, printed in 1800, is a rare smaller version of John Russell’s 1794 map printed in London. The image is sized at 7 ⅜” x 8 ⅝” and titled, “The State of Kentucky with the adjoining Territories from the best Authorities.” This map was printed in John Payne’s Universal Geography, with engraving by I. Scoles, and was published by I. Low in New York. In Thomas D. Clark’s “Historic Maps of Kentucky,” this map appears as #4 on his list.
1805 Kentucky Map
Matthew Carey published a Pocket Atlas of the United States in 1805 containing this original map of Kentucky.
Gallery1805 Kentucky Map
Matthew Carey published a Pocket Atlas of the United States in 1805 containing this original map of Kentucky.
One of the earliest printed maps of the State of Kentucky. This map provides a fine and extensive treatment of Kentucky’s early roads. Numerous towns and courthouses are shown, along with the rapids below Louisville on the Ohio River. It also includes an early appearance of Fort Washington, or Cincinnati, on the Ohio River.
