Massachusetts Map 1799 State Print - Boston, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket

John Payne's map of Massachusetts, published in New York in 1799, ranks among the earliest obtainable printed maps of the state, appearing in the same brief window as John Reid's American Atlas, Joseph Scott's Gazetteer, Carey's pocket atlas and several works by Jedidiah Morse, the small handful of eighteenth-century publications that together mark the true beginning of an indigenous American map-publishing trade rather than reliance on London engravers. Payne based his plate directly on Reid's 1796 map of Massachusetts, carrying over both its geography and at least one of its errors, the misspelling of Malden as "Malder." The map is engraved in a plain, functional style typical of this first generation of American state maps, prioritizing legibility of county and town boundaries over decorative flourish, and it records Massachusetts only a few years after the young United States had ratified its Constitution and organized its first federal government.

Boston anchors the map as the state capital and principal port, while Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket receive notably careful treatment offshore, their coastal detail unusually fine for a map of this early date. Provincetown is drawn, somewhat curiously, as though standing on an island at the tip of Cape Cod rather than on the mainland spit it actually occupies. Noman's Land is identified as a small island south of the Vineyard. The map's county boundaries lag behind the state's actual administrative divisions of the period: Berkshire County's boundary is left off entirely, and Norfolk County, only recently split from Suffolk, does not yet appear at all, both gaps Payne simply carried over unchanged from Reid's original plate.

This early state map makes a meaningful gift for a Massachusetts family tracing colonial or early-Republic roots, particularly one with ties to Cape Cod, the Vineyard or Nantucket, or for a collector seeking the very first wave of American-published state maps. It predates the store's other Massachusetts sheets by decades: Burr's 1836 tri-state map and Colton's 1859 edition both show a far more developed rail and county network than this 1799 plate ever could. It is available unframed in a full range of sizes, from a compact print for a hallway to a large-format piece for a study or office.