IMPORTANT : PLEASE NOTE

All maps are on this site. Most maps have a small description that may aid you in selecting the one you wish to view.  Opening a map will take you to a new page.

MOST OF THESE MAPS ARE HUGE.  Though they have been reduced in weight, some are so big that it will still take minutes to download them particularly if you are using dial-up.  PLEASE BE PATIENT and let your selection load into your computer.  I have reduced the weight of these maps but not so much as to affect readability.

Be sure to notice the dimensions and weight of the map you're interested.  Larger maps on older computers WILL take longer to load.  Download times are given at 28.8 kilobytes/second, normally found on dial-up.  Obviously, if you have DSL, cable or satellite your download times will be much faster.  The larger the map, the more detailed and colored it is, the more it is likely to weigh in kilobytes.

Regarding map weights :  They are given in kilobytes.  Kindly remember kilo = 1,000, so if you see a map that weighs 63kb it means 63,000; 573kb = 573,000; and so on.

To view a map, click on the year of interest.  If there are multiple maps in the same year (with exception of 1776), you will find the title of the map hyperlinked.  In the case of 1776, read each description and click on the year of each individual 1776 map.  They are not the same.

Map Description

Americae pars, nunc Virginia dicta primum ab Anglis inventa Sumtibus Dn. Walteri Raleigh Equesstris ordinis . . . MDLXXXV, by John White and Theodore De Bry 

John White's manuscript of Virginia, engraved by De Bry for his Anglorum in Virginiam aduentus, is one of the most significant cartographic milestones in colonial North American history.

Theodore de Bry's map of Virginia, after John White, is one of the most significant cartographical milestones in colonial North American history. It was the most accurate map drawn in the sixteenth century of any part of that continent. It became the prototype of the area long after James Moxon's map in 1671. This is the first map to focus on Virginia (now largely North Carolina), and records the first English attempts at colonization in the New World.

This map depicts the area from Chesapeake Bay to Cape Lookout. It has the first printed use of the name Chesapeake, Chesepiooc Sinus, and the second of Roanoke (the first being Mazza). It depicts the positions of the Indian villages in the area and is adorned with the Royal Arms of England.

Roanoke Island, neighboring Indian villages, and other features are identified. In addition, the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, Chesepiooc Sinus, is named for the first time on a published map.

Mercator-Hondius Atlas French Edition (1630)

This map shows the northeastern quadrant of the Johannes Cloppenburg map of the southeast of North America. It was published in the French edition of Mercator's Atlas of 1630. The map has been cropped and enlarged to show the Algonquin tribes and villages of coastal North Carolina.

Cummings describes this early North Carolina map as one of the most beautifully executed maps ever made of the Southeast.  In detail and in general conception it surpasses all earlier maps of the region,  It was first published in 1606.

Hondius drew on various sources for his map: John White's map, which was the first to present Virginia on its own; and Le Moyne, who drew not only on the information of the French explorers, but also on the Indians which was, at times, notoriously unreliable. He also drew on Ortelius and Wytfliet.

This cartographic compromise led to the continuation of some misconceptions: the north westerly flow of the River May and the placing of a great lake at its source was a mistake that was to last for well over one hundred years.   Many European cartographers followed this map, sometimes increasing its errors without adding to its good qualities.

Virginia to Florida back in the day.

Virginia and North Carolina back in the day.

Carolina about the year 1660, was by his Majefty, the King of Great Britain, &c. united to his Imperial Crown, and he by his Royal Grant eftablifhed it a Province or Proprietorfhip, dignified it a Principality, and granted it by Patent to the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, to the Lord Duke of Albemarle, to the Earl of Craven, to the Lord Ashley Cooper Earl of Shafstbury, to John Lord Barkley, to Sir William Barkley, and to Sir John Colliton Knt. and Baronet, and to their Heirs and Succeffors, &c.

It contains that part of the Continent of America, which by the Franch was called Florida from her florid and fragrant Fields, verdant Meadows, delightful Savans's guarded with ftately Woods.  It extends it felf from the River St. Matheo to Caratue, an inlet near Virginia,

Morden's map is one of the earliest obtainable English maps of the Carolinas.

Beginning in the 1670s, the English fortunes in North America took a dramatic turn upward, resulting in a booming interest in the British American Colonies and, in turn, the issuance of maps to satisfy this interest.  A map of the Carolinas first appeared in the 1680 edition of Morden's Geography Rectified.   A second edition, with revised maps, was published in 1688.

The map is a reduced version of Thornton, Morden & Lea's A New Map of Carolina, published in 1685, with one significant change, the Camabh and May Rivers do not intersect inland.  The map covers the region from the May River and Colleton County to the Outer Banks and Albermarle County, centered on Cape Fear. Scots Settlement, Charles Town, Charles Towne, Port Royal, Barkin County, Craven County, Clarendon County, Albermarle County and Colleton County are all named, as are the Appalachians. The Tar-Pamlico (Pantegoe) River appears. Lederer's Savana and Lake Apalacha are not shown. 

Charleston is correctly located at the intersection of the Cooper and Ashley Rivers.  The outline and angle of the coastline is significantly improved from the earlier edition of the map.  This is the second version of the map, which includes a page number (74) in the upper left corner.

Printed by C. Fatzer, 216 William St. N.Y.

Shows Outer Banks and North Carolina coast. Includes Albemarle and Neuse rivers. Cape Fear River identified as "Charles River." Map is oriented with north to right.

Sold by Tho. Basset in Fleetstreet and Ric. Chiswell in St. Paul’s Churchyard, 1676.

This is John Speed’s version of the famous Lords Proprietors’ Map of Carolina is one of the earliest published maps of the Carolina colony, and it reflects the colonists’ limited understanding of the territory, as well as some amount of wishful thinking. In 1663 Charles II "rewarded eight courtiers who had supported his return to the throne by giving them, with great generosity inlands that he did not own in the first place, all the region between Virginia and Florida and westward from the Atlantic to the Pacific"--Cumming.

The map appears to be directionally skewed, so the Appalachian mountains are situated northeast of the coast. Speed based this map on reports and a map made years earlier by a German explorer named John Lederer, according to a catalog (pdf) published by map dealers Richard B. Arkway, Inc.  Lederer had undertaken an expedition to the western reaches of Carolina, expecting to find the Pacific Ocean just across the Blue Ridge Mountains. Along the way, he reported a number of geographical features that didn’t exist, including a huge lake and the vast Arenosa Desert. These features appear in Speed’s map.

Around 1672, John Ogilby published the first Lords Proprietors’ Map of the area, based largely on reports and a map given to him by John Locke. But more significantly, he based his delineation of the interior on a map made by John Lederer, a young German who had been sent on an expedition to look over the Blue Ridge Mountains in hopes of seeing the Pacific Ocean on the other side. Lederer’s account contained some famous geographical vagaries, including a huge non-existent lake, a fictitious arid zone which he named the Arenosa Desert, and the description of Piedmont, North Carolina as a savanna which was under water several months of the year. Unlike Ogilby, Speed gives a full synopsis of Lederer’s expedition into Carolina on the verso of the map. This had a significant effect on the perpetuation of Lederer’s “discoveries” and Cumming notes that this map “must have done much to spread the knowledge of Lederer’s explorations further than his own pamphlet would have done. It also serves to explain the paths of Lederer’s journey; this clarification is lacking in Ogilby, who delineates Lederer’s route but refers to him neither on the map nor in the text.” Many of Lederer’s misconceptions continued to appear on maps as late as the middle of the eighteenth century.

ref: Cumming, The Southeast in Early Maps, #77. Cumming, British Maps of Colonial America, pp. 3-4.

"Carolina about the year 1660, was by his Majesty, the king of Great Britain, &c. united to his Imperial Crown, and he by his Royal Grant established it a Province or Proprietorship, dignified it a principality and granted it by Patent to the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, to the Lord Duke of Albemarle, to the Earl of Craven, to the Lord Ashley Cooper Earl of Shafstebury, to John Lord Barkley, to Sir William Barkley, and to Sir John Colliston Knt. and Baronet, and to their Heirs and Successors, &c.

"It contains that part of the Continent of America, which by the French was called Florida from her florida and fragrant Fields, verdant Meadows, delightful Savana's guarded with stately Woods.  It extends it self from the River St. Matheo to Caratue, an inlet near Virginia."

A. Amsterdam : Ches Pierre Mortier, Libraire

Published in Hermann Moll's Atlas Minor. London, Th. Bowles and John Bowles 1736

Copper engraving, uncolored as published. This antique map shows the Carolina with neighboring Florida in the South. Georgia is named inland left of Port Royal. The map has many place names, rivers, lakes, etc. and a few streets are engraved.

In the upper left corner historical engraved notes how Col. Barnwell defeated the Indians 1712 and how Col. Craven routed the Indians in 1716. Further names of several Indian tribes are shown on the map. In the lower right corner are the title cartouche and descriptive text of the English claim of the property of Carolina.

Edward Moseley, Surveyor General of North Carolina, published in 1733.

One of the first maps of North Carolina to accurately show the coastal regions of the colony and identify settlements in the interior. John Cowley was the engraver of the Moseley map, and this manuscript map appears to be a reduced version from it with identical place names and locations of geographical features. The map differs slightly from the Moseley map of which it is a copy: also shows a proposed settlement at the head of the Pee Dee River where the Yadkin and Uwharrie rivers join.

Bellin was one of France's premier cartographer/ engravers. This map shows the coast of North & South Carolina from the Virginia border at Edenton, down to Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, Wilmington & Cape Fear. The Savannah River is located in Georgia & below it, inland is the “Pais Des Apalaches” (country of the Apalache Indians.) It was published in “Histoire Generale des Voyages.” in 1757 by Prevost D'Exiles.

Excellent close up of the outer banks and eastern coast of North Carolina.

Shows all three states as they were before the border changes.

London.  Printed for Robt. Sayer and J. Bennett May 30th 1775.

London: Printed for Robt. Suyer & J. Bennett, Map & Printfellers, No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 10 June 1776.

London. Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett ... Augst. 17th, 1776. 

A map of the British Empire in North America. Improved from the surveys of Capt. Carver.

A very hard to read map because of serious fading.  Many settlements and towns are shown but Mr. Boden's observations and references are the sole reason this map is in the library.  If you have a better copy, will you please share it with others by submitting it to us?  Thanks.

A French map of the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia showing the many coastal waterways. 

Engraved for Morse's Geography by Amos Doolittle at New Haven, 1788.

Engraved by Vallance.

Mountain chains, waterways and routes are marked.  Counties are not delineated.

Engraved for Morses Universal Geography.  Published by Thomas & Andrews.

This map was issued in Reid's landmark American Atlas in 1796, which was published to accompany William Winterbotham's An historical, geographical, commercial, and philosophical view of the United States of America. The map, engraved by Benjamin Tanner, is one of the earliest American-made maps of the state. The information depicted in the map includes rivers, swamps, court houses, iron works, settlements, and roads throughout the state.

Counties are not delineated and is therefore, difficult to visualize boundary lines.  Frankly, the map looks scrunched up.

Carolina by J. Drayton (1803)

Copper engraving, uncolored as published. This interesting antique map shows South Carolina and its cartographic source is based on Governor Drayton's map of South Carolina of 1803. It is published 1806 at the famous German publishing house 'Geographisches Institute' in Weimar. The map provides lots of details with many place names, routes or streets, rivers, mountains, etc. The map reaches from the Appalachia mountains towards Savannah and from Georgetown towards Long Bay and the Cape fear river.

Published in Paris by Dentu, Imprimeur-Libraire.

A French map in English.

A nice map using color to delineate the county boundaries.

Philadelphia: Matthew Carey, 1814; from The American Pocket Atlas.

Philadelphia : H.C. Carey and I. Lea, 1822; from A Complete Historical, Chronological, and Geographical American Atlas.

Be sure to check out the population numbers at the bottom of the map.  Interesting!

Published by Fielding Lucas, Jun., No. 138 Market Street, Baltimore.  Written and Engraved by Jos. Perkins, Philadelphia.

This map is from an atlas described as, "the best general atlas and the finest general atlas produced in the U.S. at that time.  The quality of the engraving is superb, the detail is very fine, and the coloring is delicate and elegant....The maps in this atlas are far superior in quality"

In 1822, Henry Charles Carey and Isaac Lea published their A Complete Historical, Chronological, and Geographical American Atlas. This map of North Carolina shows towns, roads and settled counties established throughout.

Published by J.H. Colton & Co., 9 Wall Street, New York.

Shows the northeastern part of Missouri Territory. Map has six detailed inset maps showing the environs of Albany, Boston, New York, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Baltimore & Washington; plus a small inset map of  south Florida. States are outlined in color.

Published in Boston by cartographer, Thomas G. Bradford (1802-1886),

Towns, rivers, lakes, and some geography are depicted. Counties are named and indicated with original outline color.

Engraved by W. Brose, Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. Published by H.S. Tanner, No. 144 Chesnut St. Philadelphia.

This is a full color map with a profile of the Dismal Swamp canal.  Two inset maps, one of the Gold Region and the second of the Neuse River, are shown.  A table of distances is also included.

Not sure, but it appears to have most towns, villages and cities in 1845 on this map.  County lines are fairly well marked.

North Carolina by Joseph Meyer (1851)

Hildburghausen, Bibliograph. Institut 1851
Steel engraving, hand colored in outline and wash when published. A highly detailed map of North Carolina based on the map by Tanner of the early 1840s. The map is divided up into its counties and provides detailed information on small place names, rivers and streets. Even distances near certain streets are engraved. With two inset maps at the left side showing the 'Gold Regions'. In the upper centre is an explanation of distances for this map and in the lower bottom a large mileage scale.

From A New Universal Atlas of the World, containing maps of the various empires, kingdoms, states and republics of the World. By William Augustus Mitchell, one of the most notable American mapmakers of the 19th century.  Publisher Thomas, Cowperthwait, and co., Philadelphia.

Published by A. & C. Black, Edinburgh.

This map is the first by Black and Bartholomew to use color.

Compiled & Drawn by G. Schroeter, F.A.G.S., New York.

Shows the roads and railroads of North Carolina to the year 1854.

Philadelphia : Charles Desilver.

Panorama of the Seat of War. Birds Eye View Of North And South Carolina And Part Of Georgia. Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1861 by John Bachmann in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the U.S. for the Southern District of New York.

Drawn from Nature and Lith. and published by Julian Bachman.  115 & 117 Nassau St., New York.

This map joins with the Virginia, Maryland, Delaware And The District of Columbia view to form one continuous panorama of the east coast of the Confederacy.  Sorry to say, we don't have that particular map. 

Light coloring; easy to read.  There aren't as many cities or towns on this map as there are on some of the others, but there are enough that you should be able to pinpoint your ancestors' location.  This map shows railroads, settlements, counties, waterways, and lakes.  The atlas this map comes from is considered 'very scarce.'

Philadelphia: Published by S. Augustus Mitchell, No. 815 Arch Street.  1880. Entered ... 1879, by S. Augustus Mitchell ... Washington.

Shows settlements, railroads, rivers, etc.

In the bottom right corner of the map is a "Comparative Statistical Table of United States and Great Britain and Ireland (Statesman's Year Books, 1882-3)."  Also find U.S. populations by country sections according to two censuses - 1880 and 1870 - from "The Times," January 1881.

Counties are outlined in color.  Railroads are highlighted.

North Carolina. 

Rand, McNally & Co.'s New 11x14 Map of North Carolina. From the Color Landform Atlas by Ray Sterner.

This is an atlas map, lots of color, boundaries well defined, but hard to read as it isn't very clear.  Still, you might find what you need by having a look.

In PDF format.

An enlargement of the extreme eastern portion of the State.