Scull Map of Pennsylvania, 1770

The story of this map

William Scull came from a family of Pennsylvania surveyors, and in 1770 he published this map of the province in Philadelphia, engraved by Henry Dawkins and dedicated to Thomas and Richard Penn, the proprietors who still held the colony from their father’s grant. It is the last great map of Pennsylvania made while it was still a province, six years before independence.

The hand colouring outlines the counties, which at that date cluster in the southeast around Philadelphia and thin out toward the mountains, so the map reads as a picture of settlement pushing west. The Delaware and the branching Susquehanna carry the eye across the sheet, the roads and towns of the settled country are carefully placed, and the dedication cartouche gives it the ceremony of a document meant for a governor’s wall.

It belongs in a Philadelphia townhouse, a Lancaster County farmhouse, a Pittsburgh office or the home of anyone with Pennsylvania roots that go back to the colony. It is part of our Antique Maps of US States collection and pairs well with the Fry-Jefferson map of Virginia, its neighbour to the south.

Printed to order on archival matte paper, or on canvas, and framed in the country of delivery.

Before and after

Left: the archive scan exactly as published. Right: the file that goes to the printer.

Archive scanRestored

Restoration notes

Restoration plan: crop scan margins, balance colour cast and levels while keeping the paper tone, remove library stamps and scanner artefacts if present, gentle sharpening. No repainting of original content.

Every print carries its archive credit on the packing slip. Paper tone and small imperfections of the original are kept on purpose; nothing is redrawn.