Title: Virginia and Maryland As it is planted and Inhabited this present Year 1670. [Facsimile of British Museum copy]

Surveyed and Exactly Drawne by: the Only Labour & Endeavor of Augustine Herrman Bohemiensis.

Scale: Bar scale indicates 8 English Leagues.

Engraver: William Faithorne.
Map in 4 sheets.

Dimensions: Sheet: 41.4 x 50.4 cm; Image 39.8 x 48.4 cm. Sheet: 41.2 x 49.6 cm; Image 40.3 x 47.1 cm. Sheet: 41.3 x 50 cm; Image 39.5 x 47.9 cm. Sheet: 41.8 x 50.2 cm; Image 40.4 x 48.3 cm. Lithograph.

Virginia and Maryland, 1635

Augustine Herrman, the author of this map, is a well-known figure in American colonial history. He was a native of Bohemia and came to America via Germany and Holland. About 1633 he established himself as a merchant in New Amsterdam, becoming involved in several diplomatic missions for the governor of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant.

One of these missions took him to Maryland in 1659. Herrman represented the Dutch West India Company in its conflict with the Calvert family over the possession of the western shore of the Delaware Bay. After the mission Herrman decided to leave New Amsterdam and move to Maryland. Wanting also to help Stuyvesant, he offered to make a map of the contested area.

The reaction from Stuyvesant must have been discouraging because a year later, in 1660, Herrman offered to make a map for Cecilius Calvert, in exchange for a land grant in Maryland. Calvert accepted and in 1661 Herrman moved to what is now known as Bohemia Manor in Cecil County. He started the work on the map, which would take him almost ten years.

The map was ready in manuscript form in 1670 and was sent to London to be engraved. William Faithorne, a major portrait engraver, was selected for this work. It took him three years, and Herrman was not at all pleased with the result. According to him the "map was slobbered over by engraver Faithorne, defiling the prints with many errors" (Mathews, p. 380). Lord Baltimore, however, was very pleased and the map is an impressive achievement indeed.

Comparison with the John Smith map (no.2) shows immediately the superior delineation of the land on the Herrman map. This results partly from the greater body of geographical knowledge that was available to Herrman and partly from the extensive surveying he himself did. The map shows that settlements were still concentrated along the rivers and creeks of tidewater Maryland and Virginia. This region receives all of Herrman's attention.

The Herrman map served as a prototype for the later maps of the area until the publication of the Fry & Jefferson map in 1753-4.

References:
E. Baer, 1949, no. 22; E. Matthews, 1898, pp. 360-363; The World Encompassed, 1952, no. 242.

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