One of the most significant maps of North America in the 18th century was produced by a man of many talents. John Mitchell was born in Lancaster County in the Northern Neck of colonial Virginia in 1711 and traveled to Scotland for a formal education at the University of Edinburgh, receiving an M.A. in 1729. He continued his studies at University of Edinburgh for an additional two years, focusing on medicine. Although there is no record of him receiving a medical degree, Mitchell started a medical practice upon his return to Virginia in the town of Urbanna.
With his scientific and medical training, Mitchell wrote insightful accounts of several yellow fever epidemics in Virginia between 1737 and 1742. He was also an avid botanist, discovering several new genera in Virginia, sending hundreds of plant specimens to Britain, and publishing works that laid out new methods for determining plant classification. During this time Mitchell developed a network of botanists in North America that he corresponded with that would later contribute to the connections he made that led to the commissioning of his map.
Mitchell additionally contributed to the field of zoology writing accounts of observations of the North American marsupial opossum that were sent to Britain and read at the British Royal Society. In the field of physiology he wrote an “An Essay upon the Causes of the Different Colours of People in Different Climates,” which was also read at the Royal Society. Along with additional contributions to the fields of climatology and agriculture, Mitchell became a member of the American Philosophical Society and was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, with whom he corresponded for several years.
Due to ill health, Mitchell moved to Britain in 1746 and established himself as an expert in exotic botany and became a member of the Royal Society in 1748. Using his botanist contacts in the North American colonies, he served as a middleman supplying exotic plants to wealthy and influential English and Scottish noblemen, which included the Duke of Argyll. Through his connection with the Duke of Argyll, he became acquainted with the Earl of Halifax who was a commissioner for the Board of Trade and Plantations in North America. In 1752 the Earl saw a crude map of North America Mitchell had made in 1750 to delineate the dominions of the British and French. This led to the Earl commissioning Mitchell to make a more comprehensive and detailed map of North America. This map was first published in 1755 under the title “A map of the British and French dominions in North America with the roads, distances, limits, and extent of the settlements, humbly inscribed to the Right Honourable the Earl of Halifax, and the other Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners for Trade & Plantations.”
To ensure accuracy and currentness for the map, the Board of Trade and Plantations requested detailed maps from the governors of each colony in North America. Among these produced source maps was a map of Virginia by Thomas Jeffreys that was surveyed by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson (father of Thomas Jefferson).
Also included in Mitchell’s source material was a map of the Ohio River and its tributaries produced by then Major George Washington. The map was included with Washington’s journal that he kept on a mission from the Virginia governor to protest French encroachments in the area and included places such as “Logs Town” (current day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) that Mitchell ended up including on his map. This connection to Washington’s map was made in 1927 by Worthington Chauncey Ford, a former chief of the Manuscript Division here at the Library of Congress.
In addition to the maps requested by the Board of Trade and Plantations, Mitchell also used both British and French sources to compile his map, including British Admiralty journals and charts. The resulting map engraved by Thomas Kitchin and published by Andrew Millar in 1755 became very popular, but there were many improvements made to the map in later editions. Mitchell’s second edition included a list of many of his sources (see the bottom center section of the map below) after receiving criticism on the lack of sources for the first edition. As Mitchell’s map was made up of 8 sections and measured approximately 6.5 feet wide and 4.5 feet high, there were a lot of sources listed as well as a lot of room for details and information on the map.
According to Edmund Berkeley from his book Dr. John Mitchell: the man who made the map of North America, the Library of Congress holds 19 of the 21 variations of the Mitchell map published between 1755 and 1791. Of the various editions and imprints there were 7 in England, 10 in France, 2 in Holland, and 2 in Italy. Mitchell’s map in its many variations became a significant cartographic source from the second half of the eighteenth century and even up to the twentieth century. The most notable example of Mitchell’s map was its use at the Treaty of Paris to determine the boundaries of the new United States after the American Revolutionary War. The most current example was its use in the 1980 dispute between Canada and the U.S. over the Gulf of Maine Fisheries. Mitchell’s map is a fascinating work with a broad geographic scope, meticulous detail, and beautiful cartography for its time. The Geography and Map Division holds most of the variations of this map along with the space for patrons to view this large quintessential work.
Further Reading
Berkeley, Edmund, Dr. John Mitchell: the man who made the map of North America, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1974.