Ellicott's Two Maps
On instruction from President Washington, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to L'Enfant on February 27, 1792 dismissing him as city planner. Andrew Ellicott was then officially appointed by Washington to complete the L'Enfant manuscript with the necessary data for preparing the engraving. Three weeks elapsed from the time Ellicott started the corrections until the plan was completed for submission to the engravers. The speed with which Ellicott prepared the plan for the engravers and the similarity of the engraved map to L'Enfant's manuscript indicate that Ellicott did not devise a new scheme, but filled in some of the details lacking in L'Enfant's drawing, like the lot numbers. Two engraver's copies of the original manuscript were prepared by Ellicott, the first was sent to Samuel Hill in Boston for engraving. Returning to the Library of Congress Map Collection, we find a map numbered ct000299. If we look up the webpage for that map we find that it reads "Shows block numbers and proposed government buildings". This map was published in Boston in 1792 and is attributed to Ellicott. It even says on the map, "'in order to execute this plan, Mr. Ellicott drew a true meridional line ...". Here is a copy of that map. [Note the spelling of Potomac with a "K"]. Click to Enlarge This is the product that the commissioners sought, but never got from L'Enfant. Note that this planning map features the lot numbers but not the street names. As you can see, this map looks very much like the 'form' of the page 42 map (seen below). At the request of Thomas Jefferson, depth soundings for the Potomac River and the Eastern Branch were added to the Philadelphia engraving (below). The original copperplate, engraved by Thackara and Vallance of Philadelphia in 1792, is now in the possession of NOAA. The Library of Congress identifies this as the "1st printed edition of the L'Enfant plan (number 000509). Printed from the same plate as the map appearing in The Universal Asylum, and Columbian magazine, Philadelphia, Mar. 1792." This map was regarded as the simplified authoritative scheme of the city and we can consider it as the blue print used by subsequent city planners. No street names or lot numbers. Notice that this copy of the DC planning map features a notation that identifies the longitude as 0 degrees, as the prime meridian issue had been important to Andrew Ellicott, the original surveyor of Washington DC. In 1809 William Lambert submitted a proposal to the House of Representatives to establish a prime meridian "through the dome of the Capitol in Washington," to replace that of Greenwich, "since the calculation of longitude from the meridian of a foreign nation . . . implied a 'degrading dependence' and was 'a shackle of colonial dependence.'" Lambert's proposal was rejected, but it received the support of some in Congress as well as some cartographers like Ellicott. Page 2: the Sales Map On page 2 we read of a glassmaking factory and are directed to an image on the page that is called "the sales map of 1792". Looking closely you can see that it appears to be a copy of the Thackara and Vallance map but with street names and lot numbers. I have a feeling that this is the map that Ovason is speaking of, instead of the page 42 image. I believe that he simply got his illustrations mixed up. I found the image above on the web labled "The engraving published by James Thackara and John Vallance in November 1792 became the "official" city map for government and for property speculators." Below is a larger version of that image. Compare to the page 2 image. Each proposed block is numbered, the streets are named, and soundings are given in the river. This image should be on page 42. One conclusion that we could draw from all of this is that the map presented by Ovason (page 42) seems to have been a version earlier than the dotted line map. It seems that instead of two maps, there were at least four; one of which featured lot numbers and street names. The Ellicott maps share the form of the page 42 plan (L'E's first draft), but incorporate the changes that were made by Wash and L'E in the dotted-line map. Continue

Ellicott's Two Maps

On instruction from President Washington, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to L'Enfant on February 27, 1792 dismissing him as city planner. Andrew Ellicott was then officially appointed by Washington to complete the L'Enfant manuscript with the necessary data for preparing the engraving.

Three weeks elapsed from the time Ellicott started the corrections until the plan was completed for submission to the engravers. The speed with which Ellicott prepared the plan for the engravers and the similarity of the engraved map to L'Enfant's manuscript indicate that Ellicott did not devise a new scheme, but filled in some of the details lacking in L'Enfant's drawing, like the lot numbers.

Two engraver's copies of the original manuscript were prepared by Ellicott, the first was sent to Samuel Hill in Boston for engraving.

Returning to the Library of Congress Map Collection, we find a map numbered ct000299. If we look up the webpage for that map we find that it reads "Shows block numbers and proposed government buildings". This map was published in Boston in 1792 and is attributed to Ellicott. It even says on the map, "'in order to execute this plan, Mr. Ellicott drew a true meridional line ...". Here is a copy of that map. [Note the spelling of Potomac with a "K"].

Click to Enlarge
This is the product that the commissioners sought, but never got from L'Enfant. Note that this planning map features the lot numbers but not the street names. As you can see, this map looks very much like the 'form' of the page 42 map (seen below).

At the request of Thomas Jefferson, depth soundings for the Potomac River and the Eastern Branch were added to the Philadelphia engraving (below). The original copperplate, engraved by Thackara and Vallance of Philadelphia in 1792, is now in the possession of NOAA.

The Library of Congress identifies this as the "1st printed edition of the L'Enfant plan (number 000509). Printed from the same plate as the map appearing in The Universal Asylum, and Columbian magazine, Philadelphia, Mar. 1792." This map was regarded as the simplified authoritative scheme of the city and we can consider it as the blue print used by subsequent city planners. No street names or lot numbers.

Notice that this copy of the DC planning map features a notation that identifies the longitude as 0 degrees, as the prime meridian issue had been important to Andrew Ellicott, the original surveyor of Washington DC.

In 1809 William Lambert submitted a proposal to the House of Representatives to establish a prime meridian "through the dome of the Capitol in Washington," to replace that of Greenwich, "since the calculation of longitude from the meridian of a foreign nation . . . implied a 'degrading dependence' and was 'a shackle of colonial dependence.'" Lambert's proposal was rejected, but it received the support of some in Congress as well as some cartographers like Ellicott.

Page 2: the Sales Map
On page 2 we read of a glassmaking factory and are directed to an image on the page that is called "the sales map of 1792". Looking closely you can see that it appears to be a copy of the Thackara and Vallance map but with street names and lot numbers. I have a feeling that this is the map that Ovason is speaking of, instead of the page 42 image. I believe that he simply got his illustrations mixed up.

I found the image above on the web labled "The engraving published by James Thackara and John Vallance in November 1792 became the "official" city map for government and for property speculators." Below is a larger version of that image. Compare to the page 2 image. Each proposed block is numbered, the streets are named, and soundings are given in the river.

This image should be on page 42.

One conclusion that we could draw from all of this is that the map presented by Ovason (page 42) seems to have been a version earlier than the dotted line map. It seems that instead of two maps, there were at least four; one of which featured lot numbers and street names.

The Ellicott maps share the form of the page 42 plan (L'E's first draft), but incorporate the changes that were made by Wash and L'E in the dotted-line map.

Continue