Cuba, Bahamas & Florida Keys Map 1823 Regional Print - Havana, Nassau, Key West

This detailed early American map of Cuba, the Bahamas and the Florida Keys was published in 1823 by the Baltimore cartographer Fielding Lucas Jr., as part of his New & Elegant General Atlas, which included individual maps of a number of separate Caribbean islands and stands as the largest compilation of such island maps published anywhere in America prior to the Civil War. Lucas built his reputation as one of the leading American mapmakers of the early nineteenth century, having beaten his rival Mathew Carey to market with his first state atlas back in 1812 and 1813, and by the early 1820s was producing detailed, individually engraved maps rather than relying on generalized regional coverage. This sheet reflects that approach, treating Cuba and its northern neighbors as a single connected maritime region rather than isolating Cuba alone.

The map includes careful topographical detail across Cuba together with the scattered islands of the Bahamas chain and the low-lying Florida Keys, along with a network of roads and other practical infrastructure recorded across the larger landmasses. Cuba's northern coastline and the shallow, reef-strewn waters of the Straits of Florida separating it from the Keys receive particular attention, a stretch of water that was already critical to American and Caribbean shipping routes by the 1820s. The Bahamas appear as a loose scatter of islands and cays north and east of Cuba, rendered with the same careful engraving Lucas brought to his mainland American state maps. Taken together, the sheet gives an unusually complete regional view of the waters connecting the young United States to Spanish Cuba, at a time when few American atlases bothered to map the connection in such detail.

It makes a fitting choice for a collector of early American regional cartography or for anyone with ties spanning Florida, the Bahamas and Cuba. This collection carries two examples of this same 1823 Lucas edition, reflecting how the map survives today in more than one example on the market; the two are identical in content and date, and either makes an equally strong addition for a collector who simply wants a fine copy of this scarce early Lucas regional sheet. It is available unframed in a full range of sizes, from a compact study print to a larger statement piece.