3. The Age of Simeon De Witt (Along with Edmund Marsh Blunt and Several Others)

The newly independent Americans still lacked the map making capabilities of the British and other major European nations. For some time American map publishers continued to copy British maps of this area. This situation gradually changed as the education of surveyors in this country improved, and as facilities for engraving and printing maps were developed. Simeon De Witt and Edmund Marsh Blunt were among the leading American map makers during this period, and much of their work focused on New York and Long Island.

Isaac Hulse, "Map of the Town of Brookhaven, in the County of Suffolk," 1797. Detail of area around Port Jefferson. One of a series of town maps drawn up at the end of the eighteenth century as a result of a law passed by the New York State Legislature. (Courtesy of the State University of New York at Stony Brook.)

Simeon De Witt, A Map of the State of New York, 1802 [southern Sheet].
First American map of Long Island to improve on British revolutionary war era maps.
(Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.)

David Burr, part of "Map of the County of Suffolk," from his Atlas of the State of New York, 1829.
Detailed map based on surveys by DeWitt.
(Courtesy State University of New York at Stony Brook.)

Edmund Blunt, Long Island Sound from New York to Montauk Point, Surveyed in the Years 1828.29.30., 1830.
Detail showing western end of Long Island Sound.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.)

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