Historic Map : Vaugondy, Diderot Map of Alaska, The Pacific Northwest & The Northwest Passage , 1772, Vintage Wall Art

A truly fascinating 1772 map of the northwestern parts of North America by Robert de Vaugondy. Essentially depicts the north eastern parts of Asia, speculations on northwestern America and Admiral De Fonte's mythical conception of a Northwest Passage. Heavily based upon earlier work by Thomas Jefferys, Thomas Swaine Drage, Gerhard Muller, and James De Lisle. Vaugondy prepared this map prior to the voyages of James Cook to this region. Around this time Europe was rampant with speculation both regarding the existence of a Northwest Passage and the northwestern parts of America in general. The discoveries of Admiral de Fonte and Juan de Fuca though now known to be entirely mythical, inspired the European imagination. Barthlomew de Fonte was supposedly a Spanish Admiral who, sailing up the Pacific coast c. 1640 discovered a series of gigantic lakes, seas, and rivers heading eastward towards the Hudson Bay. Supposedly, upon one of these great inland lakes, he met with a ship from Boston that claimed to have come through a Northwestern Passage. De Fonte's story appeared in a short lived 1706 English publication entitled "Memoirs of the Curious". This entire map is in sharp contrast to De L'Isle map of the same region. In an alternative to the Jefferys map, De L'Isle imagined a slightly more distorted picture of the extreme northeast divided into a number of great islands with gigantic Bays and inland seas heading eastward towards Hudson Bay. These two disparate cartographic interpretations of the De Fonte story inspired considerable debate among European intellectual circles until the matter was finally put to rest by the expeditions of James Cook. Nonetheless, this is altogether fascinating map of the Northwest Passage and the American west and a must for any serious collection dedicated to this region.