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Atlantic Neptune chartsThe Atlantic Neptune is a magnificent four-volume atlas of sea charts and views of the east coast of North America, published during the American Revolutionary War by Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres (1722-1824). The atlas spans from the St. Lawrence River and Nova Scotia, to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. One volume also includes Havana and ports in Jamaica. The four volumes were completed between 1777 and 1781, though sheets were published individually as early as 1774. Browse the entire collection or: View by:
About this collectionThe Atlantic Neptune is a magnificent four-volume atlas of sea charts and views of the east coast of North America, published during the American Revolutionary War by Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres (1722-1824). The atlas spans from the St. Lawrence River and Nova Scotia, to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. One volume also includes Havana and ports in Jamaica. The four volumes were completed between 1777 and 1781, though sheets were published individually as early as 1774. Des Barres was Swiss but trained as a military engineer in England and served in a British regiment fighting the French in Canada during the Seven Years War, 1756–63. After the war he was ordered to make a survey of the coast and between 1763 and 1774 he completed Nova Scotia and Sable Island. He drew up his own surveys and those carried out by other surveyors for the British government, and he was responsible for their engraving and publication. Des Barres’s work was the first systematic survey of the Atlantic coasts of North America and is a unique document of the moment the American colonies broke away from Britain. The surveying was done for the Plantation Office as well as for the Admiralty, so the charts show coastal settlements at a period of rapid growth. Some of the charts record episodes during the American Revolutionary War, such as the events leading to the surrender of Charleston, South Carolina. The atlas includes coastal views as well as charts. Sea charts often included sketches of the coastline to enable navigators to recognize where they were, particularly at the approaches to harbours. Des Barres’s coastal views were exceptionally artistic, particularly in the later versions, and were sometimes even humorous. This would have helped to sell copies of the atlas. The Henry Newton Stevens collection consists of 176 folders containing variants of each chart, view and text sheet. When the American Revolution started in 1775 there was a great need for accurate charts for the Navy and Des Barres was under pressure to publish his charts quickly. Early versions were incomplete and sometimes contained errors. Des Barres continually revised the plates to make them more useful and attractive. Henry Newton Stevens also collected examples printed on the different types of paper that Des Barres used, which accounts for some duplication in the collection. Henry Newton Stevens was a London dealer in books and atlases, specializing in Americana. He decided to collect an example of every variant of each Atlantic Neptune sheet, breaking up a large number of atlases in the process, and over the course of more than 50 years he amassed by far the most complete collection in the world. Sir James Caird bought the collection for the National Maritime Museum from Stevens’s son in 1934. The digitization of the charts and views featured on Collections Online has been sponsored by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. |
![K0586 HNS 50A [Keppel Harbour, Knowles Harbour, Tangier Harbour, Saunders Harbour, Deane Harbour] ©National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London](http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/images/100/K/05/K0586.jpg)
![K0102 HNS 39A [Five views of the south coast of Nova Scotia] ©National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London](http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/images/100/K/01/K0102.jpg)
