The Historical Survey of the New York State Museum, in cooperation with the New York State Library, has created a digital version of the Thomas Kitchin map titled "Communication between Albany and Oswego", engraved for Thomas Mante's "The Late War in North America", London, 1772.

This map, in the collections of the New York State Library, is the best 18th century map in existence to clearly show the inland waterway network that allowed travel betwen the Upper Hudson River (Albany) and the Great Lakes (Oswego) before the Erie Canal was opened in 1825.

For this reason it presents a great lesson in the geography of New York State - a geography which, in the context of transportation history, was of international significance.

This digital map is presented in an ultra "clean" format, in which the background colors of the paper have been reduced to a single value, preserving all the inkwork of the engraving while decreasing file sizes and load times.

The map is provided in four levels of magnification: the full map; the map divided into two halves with 10% overlap; the map divided into seven sections with 50% overlap; and the map divided into 15 sections with 50% overlap.

This website is provided by the New York State Museum as a resource to researchers and students interested in American transportation history and New York State geography.

Kitchin Map URL: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/history/water/index.html



Philip Lord, Jr.
Acting Chief, Historical Survey
New York State Museum
Albany, NY 12230
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Website: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov