The author of this article is a dealer in maps, manuscripts and rare books in Glencoe, Illinois. He has also written a number of books including Maps from the Age of Discovery and Maps of the Bible Lands and was instigator of the Kenneth Nebenzahl, Jr. Lectures on the History of Cartography.

Filson's 'Map of Kentucke' is a monument of American map-making from the nation's earliest period. It was published in 1784 following the Treaty of Paris which ended hostilities with Great Britain and recognised the United States of America. With no press yet established west of the Alleghenies, Filson had the map engraved in Philadelphia by Henry D. Pursell and printed there by Ternon Rook. It was intended to accompany his pioneer account of the strategic frontier territory, west of Virginia and south of the Ohio River, printed in Wilmington, Delaware, the same year.[3]

The most significant published maps encompassing the area had been those by John Mitchell and Lewis Evans in 1755, Thomas Pownall in 1776, and Thomas Hutchins in 1778. Filson's delineation is a considerable improvement over its predecessors. He includes symbols representing 'Stations or Forts. Salt Springs & Licks. Towns. Dwelling-houses and Mills. Wigwams (Indian villages). Roads; some Clear'd, others not.' Among the towns are 'Harrod's Town', (Harrodsburg, established in 1774 by Filson's friend), the first permanent settlement in Kentucky. Also indicated are Daniel Boon's home, southeast of Lexington, his 'Station' on the road between Lexington and Louisville, and his establishments at 'Boon's Creek' on the road from Cumberland Gap. Important maps of the United States by Abel Buell and William McMurray appeared the same year as Filson's 'Kentucke.' Neither, however, portrayed the accuracy and detail that Filson, residing in Lexington and concentrating on the areas of Kentucky's first three counties, provided.

John Filson was born around 1747 in southeastern Pennsylvania, grandson and namesake of an emigrant from England, and son of a farmer. The young man was taught by the Reverend Samuel Finley, later President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton). Little is known of his activities until he turned up in Lexington after the Revolution and taught for a year in a private school. He secured, through military warrants, several thousand acres of land.[4]

His map and book were the first publications to promote Kentucky lands, a purpose that served the interests of his fellow pioneers as well as his own. This early group, the founding fathers of Kentucky, included Daniel Boone,[5-7] James Harrod,[8] Levi Todd, Christopher Greenup,[9] William Kennedy, and John Cowan. Filson acknowledged them in the scroll cartouche at the map's top right.[10] It was with their help that he completed his study of the region in just one year.

Filson's collaborators, the Founding Fathers of Kentucky. (By courtesy of Kenneth Nebenzahl, Inc)


The newly-discovered earliest state of Filson's 'Kentucke'. (By courtesy of Kenneth Nebenzahl, Inc)

The work was popular in the post-Revolutionary era when American eyes turned to western lands. In correspondence with the dedicatee, George Washington, Filson claimed his first edition of 1500 copies was almost sold out shortly after publication. He requested Washington's approbation for a proposed second edition. This was granted but the work was never published. The copy that Filson presented to George Washington has survived with Washington's autograph signature on the title page. Since 1850 it has been in the collections of the Boston Athenaeum, although the map which was once bound with it has been missing since before that date.[11] Subsequent editions did follow in London and translations appeared in Paris and three cities in Germany.[12]

Later, Filson became involved in a project for promoting a settlement on the north side of the Ohio River which afterwards became Cincinnati. While surveying that tract in 1788, at the age of forty one, he was killed by Indians. [13]