Robert Mills
Maps from The Atlas of the State of South Carolina
A protégé of Thomas Jefferson, Robert Mills
is known to have helped define and shape the architectural symbolism
of the early republic. Robert Mills trained under Jefferson
becoming the first native-born American architect. He is most
well known for the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian Institute,
yet he was responsible for many other government buildings in
Washington, D.C. In the South, his beautifully designed buildings
are scattered throughout the state of South Carolina.
The Atlas of the State of South
Carolina was presented to the South Carolina State Senate
in 1826. It was the first systematic atlas of any state in
the union, and it was touted as being significantly better
than comparable European publications. Mills devoted nearly
4 years of his life to this project. As an architect, surveyor
and cartographer, he contributed to this vast project in a
variety of ways. Responsible for producing the first atlas
of an American state, he later noted that South Carolina was
now acknowledged to be in advance of her sister states. The
legend of each map bears the surveyor's name and notes that
the map was improved for Mills' Atlas, 1825.
Robert Mills Map of Beaufort
District, from The Atlas of the State of South Carolina. Copperplate
Engraving. Paper Size, 33 7/8 X 27 3/4. Baltimore, 1825. $3600.00
As with all the Mills District maps, roads, towns, schools,
churches, Meeting Houses, plantations, ferries, taverns, mills,
racecourses, and countless private properties are located.
Among the many areas of interest located on the Beaufort District
map in addition to the town of Beaufort are Hilton Head, Spring
Island, Ladies Island, Paris Island, Savannah, Ebenezer, and
Dawfuskie Island. |
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