Compare coastlines, place names, and what mapmakers chose to include. Every preview shows the map described in its caption.
Some maps were made near the time of a voyage; others are later reconstructions or facsimiles. Captions identify the version shown. European maps do not mark the beginning of Native geography or knowledge.
9 maps
This Dutch map retells an earlier voyage. It is evidence of how the voyage was presented in 1706, not a map made aboard Gosnold’s ship. The meeting scene is an artist’s later depiction.
How does knowing the map’s publication date change what it can tell us?
Houses and gardens show that this coast was already home to Wampanoag people. Water-depth numbers and sandbanks record features useful to visiting sailors. The map presents Champlain’s view of the place.
Which details show a community living here before Plymouth Colony?
This chart follows coastlines and harbors that mattered to sailors. Symbols mark settlements, trees, anchorages, and dangerous shallows. It combines Champlain’s observations with knowledge he gathered from Indigenous people.
Why might a sailor need more detail along the coast than far inland?
The map links the Atlantic coast to the St. Lawrence and inland waters. Its border illustrations also reveal what European readers were being shown about people and plants. Such pictures reflect a European maker’s choices.
What does the map emphasize besides the shapes of land and water?
Compared with Champlain’s earlier maps, this map brings together a larger area of lakes and waterways. It also records European territorial ideas and many Indigenous communities. More information did not remove every geographic error.
What changed between this map and Champlain’s 1612 map?
This copy preserves an early European attempt to map the Atlantic coast after Verrazzano’s voyage. Its long, unusual coastline is useful for comparing changing geographic knowledge. It should be labeled as a later facsimile.
Which parts of the coastline look different from a modern map?
This printed map predates Gosnold’s voyage. It brings together European reports, but its water routes and coastline do not match a modern map. Drawings of boats and land make it both a geographic image and a story about the region.
Where does the map show certainty, and where might the maker have been guessing?
Smith’s map centers rivers and the communities beside them. Its compass shows that north is to the right. The maker relied on his journeys and information from Indigenous people, including places he had not visited.
Find the compass. How does the map change when you locate north?
Compare this 1624 edition of John Smith’s map with a map today.
Which English place names were added to the coast?
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