Virginia
Smith, John
1612
Novi Belgii
Danckerts, Justus
1690
Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi
De Lisle, Guillaume
1718
A Topographical Chart of the Bay of Narraganset in the Province of New England
Blaskowitz, Charles
1777

As a result of increased travel to the Americas, European maps continued to flourish. English colonial leader John Smith revised White’s map c. 1612, publishing a more accurate view of the Chesapeake area entitled Virginia.

Additional surveys of the land vastly improved the quality of maps depicting all regions of the Americas. Dutch publisher Claus Janszoon Visscher captured the shape of Manhattan  c. 1654, and engraver Justus Danckerts incorporated the information into his successful 1673 coastline map, Nova Belgii.

Decades later, French cartographer Guillaume de Lisle highlighted westward expansion within his Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi in 1718.

By the time of the Revolutionary War, cartography had become increasingly realistic, as visible within Charles Blaskowitz’s meticulous study A Topographical Chart of the Bay of Narraganset in the Province of New England, printed by William Faden in 1777.

A positive trajectory of artistic precision amongst European maps created between 1500 and 1800 emphasizes the quest for scientific accuracy, often in service to a desire for increased measurement and control during this period of imperial colonization.