Carey, Mathew. "Plat of The Seven Ranges of Townships being Part of the Territory of the United States N.W. of the River Ohio Which by a late act of Congress are directed to be sold.” [Ohio]

Mathew Carey after Thomas Hutchins.  Plate 28.  “Plat of The Seven Ranges of Townships being Part of the Territory of the United States N.W. of the River Ohio Which by a late act of Congress are directed to be sold.”  [Ohio]  From American Atlas. 

Philadelphia: M. Carey, 1814.  23 7/8 x 13 3/8.  Engraving by William Barker.  Original outline color.  With horizontal folds as issued.  Old tape on verso with some browning along two horizontal folds.  A few small and three larger chips in margins filled with old matching paper.  Few short tears in margins repaired with acid-free archival tape.  Else, good condition.  

An important early American map, the first of the old Northwest Territory.  In the Ordinance of 1785, passed by the U.S. Congress, the region to the north west of the Ohio River was set aside as a territory to be divided politically as settlement warranted.  The Geographer of the United States, Thomas Hutchins, who probably knew more about this area than anyone else, was instructed in the Ordinance of 1785 to survey and map this region.

It was determined that the region would be surveyed and mapped out by a rectangular system using one north-south and one east-west base line.  The first part to be surveyed was the “Seven Ranges,” which was divided into townships of six miles square.  The resulting map by Hutchins was the first map of the area to be sold off by the American government, and the first map to show the type of land distribution purposed by the Government.  The ranges and townships are shown, with the tracts set aside for the U.S. indicated.  While topographical information is somewhat sparse, this is a very important document of the history of the settlement of the Northwest Territory, the United States’ first frontier.