1835 hand-colored botanical prints

 THIS JUST IN: Here are beautiful hand-colored botanical lithographs published about 1835 in London. We’re showing you only four but we have hundreds. Sir Joseph Paxton published Paxton’s Magazine of Botany for about 15 years, beginning in 1834. The publication was known for its high quality illustrations. Side note: Paxton also designed the famous Crystal Palace for The Great Exhibition in London in 1851. Click on each image to enlarge it.

Africa maps from the 1600s and 1700s

THIS JUST IN: Antique map lovers are going to be thrilled with this new collection of Africa maps we've just acquired. At the top in this photo, Partie Meridionale d'Afrique (1705), created by Nicolas de Fer, in Paris. Next is Nigritarum Regio (1670), created by John Ogilby in London. In front, Carte de Canal de Mosambique ... (1780), created by Rigobert Bonne in Paris. All are handcolored, and printed from copper engravings.

1772 hand-colored map of West Florida

1772 map by John Lodge is part of the Lighthouse Books, ABAA collection. Please click to enlarge.

We’re at the Miami Map Fair this weekend at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, so it’s a perfect time to talk maps. The one you see here is particularly interesting. It shows West Florida in 1772. Of course, any student of Florida history knows that most of what the British called West Florida wasn’t Florida at all. Rather it was the coastal parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, with a little sliver by Pensacola thrown in.

Be that as it may, here’s the story of this map. John Lodge was a prolific London mapmaker and highly regarded engraver who produced maps for several publishers who needed them for their books and periodicals. In February 1772, one of Lodge’s clients published his magnificent map titled A Map of Part of West Florida. That is the hand-colored map you see on this page.

The periodical Lodge created this map for was The Gentleman’s Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer (yes, that was the full name), a monthly collection of tidbits and longer articles that the publisher thought might interest the educated classes in London.

An enterprising fellow named Edward Cave started the publication in 1731 and became very wealthy as a result. He was the first to use the term magazine (meaning a storehouse) for a periodical. By the time Cave died in 1754, The Gentleman’s Magazine was quite successful. Cave was succeeded first by his son, Richard and then by David Henry, who was running it in 1772.

When this map appeared it would be four years before the beginning of the American Revolution. The British had high hopes for this new land called Florida that they had acquired from Spain in 1763. They encouraged settlers with incentives of free land and support for growing export crops like indigo, sugar cane and hemp.

New Orleans came under Spanish rule in 1763. It was a thriving city, having been established by the French a half century earlier. But the area that would become Baton Rouge was sparsely populated. Clearly there were plans for development, though. The full name on the map: A Map of Part of West Florida, from Pensacola to the Mouth of the Iberville River, with a View to show the proper Spot for a Settlement on the Mississippi. Comprehensive title.

The Miami Map Fair runs through Sunday. Hope to see you there.