By Pearce S. Grove and Helen M. Wallis

Many millions of visitors must have marvelled at the reconstructed colonial town of Williamsburg, the eighteenth century capital of the British colony of Virginia. Few will know the part played in the reconstruction by one humble copperplate which was discovered in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and led indirectly to one of the most remarkable finds of this century — a batch of copperplates giving a unique and remarkable picture of life for the settlers in the 1700s. This discovery has added immeasurably to historical knowledge. Here Pearce S. Grove, who was Library Director of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation which protects the interests of the town today, describes how the find was made and Helen Wallis, his collaborator, analyses the maps and her further discovery of the prints. Pearce Grove is now Director of Development at Virginia State Library Foundation, Richmond, and Helen Wallis has now retired as Map Librarian of the British Library.

The discovery at Oxford

by Pearce S. Grove

IN 1986, 754 copperplates came to light in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The collection includes a previously unknown series of plates, 250 years old, depicting regions and scenes in eighteenth-century America. The copperplates are part of the collections which Richard Rawlinson (1690-1755), antiquary and bibliophile, bequeathed to the Bodleian Library of Oxford University in 1755. Rawlinson's bequest of manuscripts and rare books still ranks as the largest donation that the Library has ever received.[1]

Such a vast consignment overwhelmed the small staff of the Library.[2] When the bulk of the materials came in 1756, no attempt was made to set them in order or to catalogue them. As the years went by, successive finds recovered from various parts of the Library were catalogued. In 1900 the copperplates were listed by Edith Mary Guest, one of the special assistants whom the Librarian, Edward Nicholson, brought in for cataloguing. This list was recorded in the Oxford University Gazette, May 14, 1901, which must have been the first public notice of the copperplates since the late eighteenth century.[3]

According to the Gazette, the plates were 'entirely undescribed, unreferenced, and unarranged; and, although prints from 305 of the plates were scattered in the volumes known as "Rawlinson Prints", the nature of the rest of the collection was practically unknown.' The entries for the plates are written on slips pasted in alphabetical order in a volume entitled Index to the Rawlinson Copperplates.[4] Edith Guest presumably found the American plates bound together and she describes them as seeming to belong to 'some book of travels in America of date about 1752.' We have not yet found the reason for this carefully considered date.[5]

Richard Rawlinson, antiquary and bibliophile, who collected the copperplates and left them in his will to the Bodleian Library, Oxford. His bequest of manuscripts and rare books still ranks as the largest donation that the Library has ever received. (By courtesy of the Bodleian Library)

A print from the copperplate of Colonial Williamsburg which was first 'discovered' in the Bodleian Library in 1929 and was used as a basis for the reconstruction of public buildings in the town. This plate was presented to John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1936 and is now on exhibit in Williamsburg.(By courtesy of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)

Three years later, in 1903, the American historian, Charles Andrews, visited the Library and listed two of the copperplates in Volume 3 (1908) of his Guide to the Manuscript Materials for the History of the United States to 1783. He apparently never saw the plates nor did he realise there were others in the same series.[6]

Twenty years later, in secrecy, a project was put in hand for the restoration of Williamsburg, the old colonial capital of Virginia, then no more than a 'sleepy village'.[7] The agents of this remarkable enterprise were the Reverend W.A.R. Goodwin and the philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Mary Goodwin, cousin of the Reverend, and an historical researcher for the restoration, saw Andrews' reference while preparing to visit England in 1929 to search for sources to support the accuracy of the rebuilding.

At the Bodleian in December of that year Mary Goodwin called for the plates listed by Andrews. To her utter astonishment, she found herself looking at a view of the eighteenth-century public buildings of Williamsburg. She sent a cable to the Reverend Goodwin to stop building work on the Wren Building as the College of William and Mary was known.[8] She then sent a radiogram of the plate[9] but her letter to The Times of February 27, 1930, seeking information on any book containing a reproduction of the plate, yielded no results.

In 1936 the Bodleian presented the copperplate to John D. Rockefeller Jr. It was later put on exhibition as a precious icon of Williamsburg but its provenance remained a mystery for another fifty years.

My part of the story begins in 1986 when I attended a seminar at the Bodleian Library. I saw a framed print of the Williamsburg plate on the wall and said to my colleague, Edwin Wolfe of Philadelphia. 'They must have known we were coming!' But no one seemed to have known anything about the print. The following day, however, I was given Edith Guest's handwritten list of the plates and I called for those relating to the Americas.[10] These were found and it became obvious that they belonged to a series as engraved in the top right hand corner of each was a letter or number reference. Four items, IV to VII were missing. There were also stylistic features which linked the plates. Unfortunately, no cartographer, artist or engraver was named. At this point we were also unaware of any paper impressions of the plates.

The copperplates were a valuable discovery for Williamsburg and the Quarterly Journal of the Foundation of 1987 carried a full article by Luis Marden with illustrations.[11] The Bodleian Library responded by publishing a limited edition of fifty numbered prints from seventeen of the plates; these included all the American series except the Williamsburg plate. In 1988, the plates were lent to the Wallace-De Witt Gallery at Williamsburg for exhibit.

The copperplate maps and the Holkham engravings

By Helen M. Wallis

SERENDIPITY AND PATIENT research contributed to the discovery of the copperplate maps. Pearce Grove's determination to trace the provenance of the Williamsburg plate brought to light its companion pieces. The next step was to seek answers to the many questions raised. As Pearce Grove remarked in 1987, 'There are lots of little clues... but we don't have the key.'[12]