Carte Generale des Treize Etats-Unis Independants De L'Amerique Septetrionale Pour Servir au Spectateur Americain.

This fascinating map is one of the earliest to recognize the newly-independent United States after the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783. It also features one of the first depictions of the American flag on a map.



This map was engraved by Hendrik Klockhoff, an Amsterdam engraver about whom very little is known, based on the geography of Rigobert Bonne, one of France's leading cartographers. It was published in Joseph Mandrillon's Le Spectateur Americain, a detailed account of Revolutionary America first published in 1782. Further editions were published in 1783, 1784, and 1785. The five small paragraphs which appear off the coast of the Mid-Atlantic states were added for the 1784 and 1785 editions.



The western boundary of the United States is clearly marked as the Appalachian Mountains as it had been since King George's fatal Proclamation of 1763. The course of the Ohio River is roughly sketched, but otherwise the country west of the Appalachians remains largely unexplored.



The large title cartouche is particularly important as it contains one of the earliest depictions of the American flag on a printed map. Suspended above the flag is a clearly-recognizable liberty cap, a potent symbol creating a direct connection between the American Revolution and the imminent French Revolution.



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