Classroom » Multimedia
1640 map of southern Virginia and eastern Florida
About this map
Willem Janszoon Blaeu. Virginiæ partis australis, et Floridæ partis orientalis… [Virginia parts south and Florida parts west… Netherlands, Amsterdam, 1640.
- Date created
- 1640
- Location
- U. S. A.
- License
- Copyright unknown.
- Source
- Original image housed by Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens, New Bern, N.C.; Dept. of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives & History
Related media
Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for colonial, Florida, geography, history, maps, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
The title of this 1640 map, Virginiæ partis australis, et Floridæ partis orientalis, translates to “Virginia parts south and Florida parts east.” At the time, Virginia included all the British land along the east coast, so the map covers the area where North Carolina now exists. Although the map shows the Virginia coast and the Chesapeake Bay in detail, the shape of the coastline south of Virginia—and the fact that the Outer Banks don’t appear at all—illustrates the extent to which much of the east coast was still uncharted territory at the time. The interior of Carolina, too, was largely a mystery: The Appalachian region of the map includes a large lake that didn’t exist, but appeared in numerous early American maps.
