First impression of third edition, 1773, with hand-drawn red lines. Engraving, hand-colored. First published in 1755, John Mitchell’s map was the most impressive and accurate cartographic description of Britain’s territorial holdings in North America at the time. The historical significance of the map increased exponentially when it was used to demarcate potential boundaries during the negotiations of the Treaty of Paris, 1782–1783. Representatives from Britain, the United States of America, and Spain each brought a copy of the Mitchell map to the negotiations. A detailed map of the geographic areas being discussed was fundamental to their discussions. Red lines were hand-drawn on the maps to identify potential boundaries. Only three copies of the red-lined Mitchell map are known to exist. The map used by Richard Oswald, negotiator for the British, is held by the British Library. The map used by Count d’Arada, the Spanish ambassador, is at the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid. This map, used by John Jay, who was negotiating on behalf of the United States along with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, was donated to the New-York Historical Society by his son, Peter Augustus Jay, during his tenure as president of the Society, 1840–1842.
