Map and Chart Publishing in Boston in the Eighteenth Century

For much of the 18th century, map publishing in America was a financially precarious undertaking. The same held true in Boston, where individuals from many walks of life ventured into commercial mapmaking. David Bosse, Librarian and Curator of Maps at Historic Deerfield, explores the work of several Boston mapmakers during this period of ad-hoc publishing in his lecture, “Map and Chart Publishing in Boston in the Eighteenth Century” This program is part of a series related to the Museum and Library’s collection of historic maps. The lecture is free thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Ruby W. and LaVon P. Linn Foundation.

David Bosse is Librarian of Historic Deerfield and the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, and curator of maps at Historic Deerfield.  He formerly served as curator of maps at the Clements Library of the University of Michigan, and assistant map curator at the Newberry Library, Chicago.  His research on the early American map trade has appeared in Mapping Boston (MIT Press, 1999), the journal Cartographica, and in the online journal, Coordinates.  He has a particular interest in account books and what they can tell us about the individuals who kept them and the community they lived in.