A Map of New England. 1677.

A Map of New England. Woodcut by John Foster, Boston, 1677.
The legend on this woodcut map describes it as "the first that ever was here cut, and done by the best Pattern, that could be had, which being in some places defective, it made the other less exact: yet doth it sufficiently shew the Scituation of the Country, and conveniently well the distances of Places." No earlier printed map has ever been identified, and the engraver's claim to be responsible for the first cartographical production in wood or copper in what is now the United States still holds. The map was issued in William Hubbard's The present State of New-England, being a Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians, which was printed and published by Foster in Boston in 1677. The engraver did not sign the map but it has long been accepted as Foster's work. West is represented at the top of the map and east at the bottom, showing Cape Cod at the lower left, and Rhode Island literally as an island.

Source: American printmaking, the first 150 years. Pref. by A. Hyatt Mayor. Foreword by Donald H. Karshan. Introd. by J. William Middendorf II. Text by Wendy J. Shadwell. Washington, DC: Published for The Museum of Graphic Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1969. Plate 2.