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George Washington: Surveyor and Mapmaker

Featuring the maps in George Washington’s life, Washington as a public land surveyor, Washington as a land speculator, and a list of early maps and surveys.

Tracing the Maps in George Washington's Life Beginning with his early career as a surveyor and throughout his life as a soldier, planter, businessman, land speculator, farmer, military officer, and president, Washington relied on and benefitted from his knowledge of maps.
Washington as Public Land Surveyor Washington created surveys and maps from his boyhood through the French and Indian Wars.
Washington as Land Speculator In 1752 Washington made his first land purchase, 1,459 acres along Bullskin Creek in Frederick County, Virginia. This act inaugurated the second and more profitable phase of his cartographic career, in which he assumed the role of land speculator.
List of Early Maps and Surveys Maps of Alexandria, Virginia, Mount Vernon and vicinity, Survey Plats, Western Lands, and maps annotated by Washington.

Collection George Washington Papers