Penn prints

I love history that has a link to fly fishing. These Penn prints are reprints of old 16th, 17th and 18th Century maps of famous cartographers printed in the 1960s. Some interesting insights from then, like California shown as an island. Also the Korean Peninsula (Willem Blaeu, ca. 1642) is shown as an island*.

Then there is this map by the famous Dutch cartographer Nicolaes Visscher of the eastern USA as seen in the 17th century.

A large part of the Eastern coast was a Dutch colony then called Nieuw Nederlandt (New Netherlands) or in Latin ‘Nova Belgica’. Back in those days The Netherlands was called 'Low Lands' which also included parts of current Belgium.

The area now known as the Catskills is particularly interesting. The map also shows the Catskill area as the Dutch settlement ‘t landt van Kats Kill’ which can be translated as ‘Kats Kill county’ with a creek called ‘Kats Kill’. The word ‘kill’ is an old Dutch word voor creek. I think ‘Kats’ refers to a Dutch family name. We also see Long Island (written in Dutch).

If you have some spare cash you can buy an original Nicolaes Visscher map...

* In a later map (1658) by Nicolaes Visscher shows Korea as a peninsula.