The early republic was constituted around property, territory, and land. The surveying of property, the depiction of land, and claims to territorial expansion and annexation were important discourses in the intellectual life of the new republic. In all three areas, Thomas Jefferson, the third president, played an important role. He was following a long family tradition. His great grandfather surveyed county roads. His father Peter, who was a county surveyor and co-producer (with Joshua Fry) of one of the first accurate maps of Virginia, bequeathed his surveying tools to his fourteen-year-old son. Surveying and mapping comprised an important skill set for American landowners, since they had no access to the technicians available to their European counterparts. Land was the basis for wealth and prestige; territorial expansion was the way to personal fortune and national aggrandizement.
Kovarsky provides a good coverage of Jefferson’s cartographic vision. He discusses the regional geography of...