American Revolution
1777 Colored Map titled: "A PLAN OF THE CITY AND ENVIRONS OF PHILADELPHIA" by Matthew A. Lotter
1777-Dated Revolutionary War Period, Hand-Colored Map titled, "A PLAN OF THE CITY AND ENVIRONS OF PHILADELPHIA," by Matthew Albert Lotter (1741-1810), Choice Very Fine.
This beautifully Hand-colored Map measures 23.5" x 18" being copied by Lotter from the first issue of Faden's original plan and a nice example of Lotter's edition of Scull & Heap's seminal Philadelphia map. When first issued in 1752, the famous Scull and Heap plan was intended to promote William Penn's new city on the Delaware. When the events of the American Revolution began to heat up, illustrations of the center of the revolt at Philadelphia began to be in great demand in Europe. This demand was soon met by publishers in England, Germany and France with the reissue of the Scull and Heap map, then still considered the most up-to-date cartographic treatment of Philadelphia then available.
Holmes' grid Plan for the City is shown situated between the rivers, and numerous outlying 'country seats' are placed and named, with the primitive road system also indicated. Lotter updated from the first edition to take into account the changes in the place names and environs of the city since the middle of the century, and Heap's elevation of the statehouse was moved from the top to the bottom center of the plate. The result of all this is a highly attractive and historic map that shows Philadelphia at the time of the Revolution.
This is one of the most attractive and affordable maps of Philadelphia at the time of the American Revolution. Printed in Augsberg in 1777 and included in Tobias Conrad Lotter's Atlas Geographique. Excellent overall eye appeal, some trivial marginal reinforcement remnants. See: Nebenzahl Battle Plans #131; Snyder #46. A near identical example is located within the collection of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.