THE FIRST MAP OF FLORIDA to be published following American acquisition. In 1819 the Adams-Onis Treaty transferred Florida from Spanish to American control. It was however 1821 before this was effected. It was finally organised as a Territory of the United States on 30 March 1822. The map is ‘Compiled and Drawn from various actual Surveys and Observations By Charles Vignoles, Civil and Topographical Engineer, 1823’ and ‘Engraved by H.S. Tanner and Assistants’.

Charles Blacker Vignoles (1793-1875) was born in Ireland to a Huguenot family. His father was an officer in the military and was shipped with his wife and child to the British West Indies. His father was wounded and taken prisoner after storming Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe in 1794. Shortly after both he and his wife died of yellow fever. He was then placed with his maternal grandparents back in England. In 1813 Vignoles entered the Sandhurst Military Academy studying engineering but was not their long. In 1816 he married and the following year set sail for America intending to serve under Simón Bolivar. He found himself in Charleston, South Carolina in October 1817 where he was appointed assistant to South Carolina’s chief engineer and became involved in mapping the state. In 1820 he travelled to Florida and in October 1821 he was named engineer and surveyor of St. Augustine.

Shortly after his appointment ‘A member of the Land Claims Commission of Florida, realising the need for a new map of this latest addition to the Union, suggested that Vignoles should produce one, and that he should write a topographical memoir of the state to go with it. The U. S. Military authorities may possibly have commissioned the survey, but nothing seems to have been said about the expenses of publication, which in the event devolved on Vignoles himself. However, he had high hopes of the work bringing him in money as well as distinction, and although he was mortgaging his time and skill for a payment in the distant future’ (K. H. Vignoles).

His first expedition began in February 1822 in the company of a U. S. general and his staff. It was to cover the east and south west coasts including the Florida Keys and the Tortugas before returning via Tampa Bay by the end of March. A second expedition followed almost immediately which covered the interior. By September he was in New York with the map and pamphlet ready looking for a publisher. The ‘Observations upon the Floridas’ was published by E. Bliss and E. White in New York in the beginning of March 1823. The book was a brief survey of the climate, culture, history, soil and topography of the newly acquired territory.

At the same time as the publication of the ‘Observations’ his map was engraved and published by Henry Tanner. ‘A map – sold separately & issued with none of the editions – is found, inserted, in some copies’ (Howes). The author mentions the map on p. 16, ‘The map of Florida which is published at the same time with this book, by the author, will … be sold, either bound up with it, or separately in sheets, done up in cases or mounted and varnished, with roller, colored or uncolored as required.’ ‘Price 2 Dollars plain; 2.50 Dollars colored: 4 Dollars, mounted on rollers and varnished or done up in portable form’ (K. H. Vignoles). An extensive search of auction records was unable to trace an example sold with the map. It proved impossible to find a record of the sale of the map either. The only institution we could identify with an example was the Library of Congress whose copy is uncoloured and damaged. Indeed, his biographer K. H. Vignoles even states in the book that ‘It has not been possible to trace a copy of Vignoles’s map, but there exists a map of Florida’. Our example is in superb condition with early outline colour.

Henry Schenck Tanner (1786-1858). and his brother Benjamin (1775-1848) started their careers as engravers in Philadelphia. He is considered the first native born American to become a publisher. He also engraved maps for other famous mapmakers including John Melish and Fielding Lucas. His first atlas venture was the ‘New American Atlas’ published in 1823. It ‘still ranks as one of the most magnificent atlases ever published of the United States. It was also one of the last American atlases published during the period in which maps were still engraved’ (Ristow). Because of the large financial costs incurred only two of the States have a map to themselves – New York and Florida. The rest are grouped together. It was published in five parts from 1819-1823, that of Florida appearing in the last part on 20 August 1823. Tanner copied the Vignoles map of Florida on a slightly smaller size but he does not give Vignoles any credit.

This is the FIRST MAP TO NAME THE EVERGLADES, ‘Extensive inundated Region covered with Pine and Hammock Islands of all sizes, and generally called the Ever Glades’. The site of the future Miami is marked by the first ‘Cape Florida Settlems.’ The bulk of the peninsula is identified as St. Johns County’. It depicts various Indian routes and tracks as well as other roads mostly in the panhandle region. Tampa Bay is named and general descriptions of the land in the peninsula in particular are given such as ‘Rich Open Savanna’, ‘High Pine Lands’, ‘Cypress Lands’ and ‘unexplored lands’. This is one of the most collected maps of Florida.

In 1823 he received news of his grandfather’s death and shortly after returned to England. His prospects in the USA were limited, he had not had success with gaining employment on projects in the north, the South was blighted by a worldwide slump in demand for Cotton and he owed money in Charleston, and prospects of regaining land granted to his grandfather in Florida were limited. He soon became involved in surveying for the first railway lines being constructed, the London and Brighton and the Liverpool and Manchester line. He spent the next 15 years living in Liverpool. ‘Vignoles also advocated a flat-bottomed rail which would bear directly on sleepers without any chair, but despite occasional trials the rail was never adopted in Britain. On the continent, it was, and in Germany and France it was named after him’ (ODNB). He became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1829, a fellow of the Royal Society in 1855 and president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1869.

Clark (1969) II:273; Howes (1962) V 97; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; Ristow (1985) pp. 131-2 (ill. of LC copy), 154 & 191-8, Sabin (1868) 99608; Schwartz & Ehrenberg (1980) p. 251; Vignoles, Keith H. (1982) Charles Blacker Vignoles: Romantic Engineer, pp. 15-22; Vignoles, Keith H. (1984) ‘Charles Blacker Vignoles in South Carolina and Florida, 1817-23’, in ‘The South Carolina Historical Magazine’, vol. 85, no. 2 pp. 83-107.