The Paris Review

America’s First Female Mapmaker

From Emma Willard’s Republic of America. Designed for Schools and Private Libraries, 1829.

A recent item for sale in the rare-book trade caught my eye. Boston Rare Maps had a series of twelve maps created by America’s first female mapmaker, Emma Willard. They were to accompany a textbook she had written, first issued in 1828. The maps for sale were from the second edition.

Willard is

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