United States of Nth. America

Revised from a British map, this map by French cartographer Pierre Tardieu presented a view of America shaped by France’s alliance during the Revolution. The inclusion of French-born architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s plan for the nation’s capital in Washington, D.C. symbolized how Americans embraced French cultural and political influence rather than British colonial precedent in the early national period. Even the depiction of Niagara Falls in the cartouche suggests a reorientation toward North America’s distinct natural landmarks and the geographic wonders of the interior. Boston, which had once lay on the western edge of the Atlantic empire and at the center of a lucrative maritime trading network, now stood in an uncertain position at the northeastern corner of an expanding American republic.