A Map of the State of Pennsylvania (Reading Howell, 1792; the facsimile of 1896)

Reading Howell’s map of the state, published at Philadelphia in 1792 and shown here in the facsimile printed for the Pennsylvania Archives in 1896: Pennsylvania from Lake Erie and the Ohio line to the Delaware, with its counties and townships, the Depreciation and Donation lands of the northwest, the district lines of the late surveys, the roads, mills, forges and towns of the new state, and the edges of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio and Virginia. Howell compiled it from the Land Office surveys and the state’s own surveys of its boundaries and rivers. Its Explanation keys “An Indian Path” (a fine dotted line) and “An Indian town” (a small tent): Kuskusky, a Moravian town on the Beaver, Logs Town, Conemaugh, Frankstown and Obeals (Cornplanter’s town) on the Allegheny, and paths of the Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Seneca and other Haudenosaunee nations across the north and west — the Snow Shoe path from the West Branch to the Bald Eagle’s Nest, the “Portage 23 Miles” between the Canoe Places of the Allegheny and the Sinnemahoning, the Kittanning path toward Frankstown, the Sheshequin path over Burnet’s Hills, and shorter paths to the Lick on the Elk Lick Branch and to the Salt Spring. Not shown: the copyright notice, the title, the dedication, the Explanation, the mounting strip and cloth seam between the four pieces of the sheet, and the margins.

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