Printed maps became a key feature of late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century travel and emigrant accounts. Reflecting Britain’s dominance in the American Colonies, maps also served as a navigational tool for British and Welsh emigrants looking to embark on a new life across the Atlantic. Information on travel routes and journeys can also provide insight into the ways in which waterways and rivers were used, borders were crossed, and land was owned.
Notions of empire remain evident, with maps occupying a supporting role to the information these accounts contained on the nature of land and borders, climate, agriculture, and the various inhabitants of the now United States of America. A sense of ownership and entitlement felt by emigrants towards the American colonies is also suggested.
Valuable historical sources, maps can be analysed alongside governmental documents, travel accounts, and treaty negotiations to provide a deeper insight to the ways in which notions of empire were revealed on a local and international stage. More than geographical surveys, this guide has highlighted the extent to which maps and atlases reveal important early modern concepts and representations of borders and power, and are a useful tool in constructing a narrative of the past.