The Journal of Andrew Ellicott.for determining the boundary between the United States and the Possessions of his Catholic Majesty in America containing Occasional Remarks on the Situation, Soil, Rivers, Natural Productions, and Diseases of the Different C

Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1803. 4to., (10 x 8 2/8 inches). Letterpress title-page (marginal repairs), Errata leaf at end. 14 folding plates and maps (repaired with archival tissue at folds on verso, browned throughout, some spotting). Contemporary American mottled sheep (extremities a bit rubbed). Provenance: 19th-century ink library stamp of City Library of New Bedford on the verso of one map. First edition. Ellicott's career as a surveyor "began in 1784 with his appointment as one of the commissioners for Virginia to clarify the boundaries between that state and Pennsylvania.He was commissioned with David Rittenhouse and Andrew Porter to define the western boundary of Pennsylvania, and in 1787 he completed a survey of the state's northern boundary. In 1789 Ellicott moved his family to Philadelphia and was employed by the federal government to survey the Presqu' Isle triangle, the tract north of the forty-second parallel and south of Lake Erie, a project that occupied him into 1791. In early 1796 President Washington commissioned him to undertake the survey of the boundary between the United States and the Spanish territory of Florida in accordance with a treaty with Spain. Ellicott kept a detailed account of all that came to his notice and obstruction he encountered from the Spanish. After completing the survey in the spring of 1800 he submitted his report to the State Department. Because President John Adams withheld it from the Senate, however, no appropriation was made for Ellicott's compensation, which left him in serious financial difficulties. After publication of his report in Philadelphia in 1803, he rose to considerable prominence in the world of science" (Silvio A. Bedini for ADNB). Plate A: folding map of Ohio River from Cincinnati to Pittsburg Plate B: folding map Ohio River from Cincinnati to confluence with the Mississippi Plate C: folding map of Mississippi from confluence with the Ohio to the confluence with the Arkansas River Plate D: folding map of Mississippi from confluence with the Arkansas River to the Southern Boundary of the United States Plate E: folding map of the Southern Boundary of the United State south to the mouth of the Mississippi Plate F: folding map of the Southern Boundary of the United State south from St. Rose's Bay to East Florida and the mouth of the St. Mary's River at the Atlantic Ocean Folding plates in the Appendix, numbered 1-8, record Ellicott's survey along the Boundary Line.. American Imprints 4147; Graff 1230; Howes E94; Rader 1295; Sabin 22216; Servies 768. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.