Copper engraving handcolored with watercolor.

Outline color.

Relief shown pictorially.

Mounted on linen.

Printed in cartouche in upper left corner: "Amérique Septentrionale, dressée, sur les Relations les plus moderns des Voyageurs et Navigateurs, et divisée suivant les differentes possessions des Européens. Par le Sr. Robert de Vaugondy, fils de Mr. Robert Géographe ordin. 'Du Roy. Avec Privilege. 1750."

Printed in upper right corner is a scale comparing geographic miles, French marine leagues and Spanish leagues.

Printed in the center of the left border: "Occident."

Printed beneath bottom border: "Midi."

Printed in the center of the right border: "Orient."

Printed in the center of the top border: "Septentrion."

Depicts northwest region of North America as blank. This area is marked as "Terres Inconnues." The northwest region of modern-day United States is called "Quivira". The entrance explored by the Spanish explorer, Martin d'Aguilar is marked in this area. Northern California is named "Nlle Albion." "Louisiane" or Louisiana is shown as stretching from east of the Mississippi River all the way into the far northwest. Areas where Native American tribes including the Choctow and the Cherokee live are marked . The Great Lakes are shown as are some of the British colonies including Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and New England. Includes the northern top of South America. The title cartouche depicts Native men and a native woman with an infant next to a waterfall, surrounded by vegetation. An alligator is depicted in the water.

Didier Robert de Vaugondy (1723-1786) was Royal Geographer and Censor in France (Tooley, 541). The Robert de Vaugondy family was descended from the Nicolas Sanson family and had much of his map plates. The family combined his plates with those of Hubert Jaillot's plates after his death in 1712. Combining the map plates and thoroughly revising the earlier engravings, the family created the "Atlas Universel" (1750-1757), a work that exemplifies "exceptional precision and great beauty" (Portinaro and Knirsch, 317; Moreland and Bannister, 136). Didier's work includes: "Mexico" (1749), "Maps in Atlas Universel" (1750-1757), "Nouvel Atlas portative" (1784), and "America Septentrionale" (1761). His atlases were later reissued by Delamarche (Tooley, 541). This map was first published as plate 97 in "Atlas Universel" (1750) (Wagner, 334, entry 567; Lowery, 303). Source(s): Lowery, Woodbury. "The Lowery Collection: A Descriptive List of Maps of the Spanish Possessions within the Present Limits of the United States, 1502-1820." Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1912. Moreland, Carl and David Bannister. "Antique Maps: A Collector's Handbook." New York: Longman Group, Ltd., 1983. Portinaro, Pierluigi and Franco Knirsch. "The Cartography of North America 1500-1800." New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1987. Tooley, Ronald Vere. "Tooley's Dictionary of Mapmakers." Hertfordshire: Map Collector Publications Limited, 1979. Wagner, Henry R. "The Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America to the year 1800 Volume 2." Berkeley: University of California Press, 1937.

• Subjects (LCSH): North America-Maps--Early works to 1800
• Categories: Quivira; Mythical Places