HOUGH, Benjamin and BOURNE, A. A Map of the State of Ohio from Actual Survey. Chillicothe: B. Hough, A. Bourne, and J. Melish, 1 May 1815.

"The first map of Ohio to show all the actual surveys within the inhabited part of the state" (Ristow). A rare and early large map of Ohio. We trace only two copies in the auction records of RBH, one of which was the Streeter copy. "This large and detailed map of Ohio shows rapid progress of the township grid from the original surveys in the eastern part of the state in the 1790s. In southern Ohio some of the areas claimed by land companies established in the colonial period were surveyed and parcelled out prior to 1795, and their irregular patterns, conforming more to topography than geometry, are in strong contrast to the tyranny of the grid. Similar collisions of old and new systems of land tenure and surveying can be seen elsewhere in the country, particularly along the lower Mississippi where a pattern of plantation strips running back from the river established by the French settlers encounters the later American squares. Such patterns in the landscape are best seen from airplanes; they reward the traveler with an atlas and a window seat" (Creating America). Reese & Miles, Creating America 57; Ristow, p.146; Streeter sale 1354.

Lithographed map hand-colored in outline, in 48 sections, approx. 132 x 115 cm., original linen backing and edges trimmed in blue ribbon (ribbon frayed, minor toning and wear at section edges, a little dampstain at top, linen starting to split at top right section, some old sewn repair to linen on one horizontal fold, marbled paper backing to folder covers present only on one side).