DESCRIPTION: SOLD
An unrecorded finely-executed pen and ink manuscript map of Roque Island, Maine by surveyor H.E. Taylor of Machias, Maine. A presentation-quality survey with careful lettering and light wash hand-color laid to linen and edged with red selvage.
The survey was probably commissioned by Gilbert Longfellow (1), as it credits assistance from H.W. Longfellow, who was most likely Henry, Gilbert's son. Additionally, the map was made less than a year before the Longfellow family sold Roque Island to the Gardner family. Numerous features are noted including:
- the "old tide mill dam"
- "old camp , shell heaps" on Romney Point
- "Inspiration Point"
- "burial ground"
- "Devil's stairway"
- "Clam Cove
- "Great Beach"
- "Roaring Cavern"
- "Indian Landing"
This is the earliest large-scale map of the Roque Island Archipelago I have been able to locate. No holdings of this map are recorded in WorldCat or elsewhere online. At Harvard there is another similar map by Taylor from 1881- "Longfellows Island (formerly Shorey's): with adjacent islands and part of Englishmans River Neck".
Note: The full title of the Roque Island map is: "Topographical Map of Roque Island, Maine area 1274 acres and including barred islands 1309.3 acres Surveyed August 1881 with assistance of H.W. Longfellow & J. U. Chandler. By H. E. Taylor Civil Engineer and Surveyor."
Although there were several intermittent settlers on Roque Island in the 1760s and 1770s, it was not until 1788 that a group of merchants from Boston and Salem, purchased a huge tract of Maine land, which included Roque Island, primarily for its timber. (2)
Joseph Peabody, a Salem, Massachusetts, resident, purchased Roque Island with a business partner in 1806. He acquired full ownership of the island in 1814. Peabody was a major figure in Massachusetts's politics and finance and owned several ships that ran between Massachusetts and the Far East. Roque island was sold to the Longfellow and Shorey families in 1870, but the extended Gardner family repurchased it in 1882, shortly after this map was drawn. In 1940 ownership of Roque Island and its neighboring islands was placed into the Roque Island Gardner Homestead Corporation.
(1) Gilbert Longfellow (1824-1912), originally from Machias, Maine, spent several years residing on Roque Island with his family. Between 1885 and 1887, John Ulmer Chandler (the other 'assistant' on this map) engaged Charles Preble, a talented builder from Machias, to create a two-story octagonal cottage on a piece of land he jointly owned in Roque Bluffs with Gilbert Longfellow, John's wife's cousin. The distinctive home became known as "the Octagon" and "the Inkwell." Later Longfellow moved to Pasadena, California where he built another octagon house- the Longfellow-Hastings House, now on the National Register of Historic Places.
(2) A Brief History of Roque Island. https://roqueisland.com/. History. Online.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1881
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: Englishman's Bay
CONDITION: Good.
Laid to linen. Red selvage stitched solid except for upper left top. Mild stains and grime from handling. Rolled, no folds. Pinholes in corners but no tears, holes or other major issues.
COLORING: Light wash hand color.
ENGRAVER:
SIZE: 31
" x
36 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 9999999
PRICE: $
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