I. Women in the Early Modern Map Trades: Engravers, Printers, Publishers

Coletta took over the business of her husband, Jodocus Hondius, for a short period after he died in 1612, before passing it on to their sons, Jodocus, Jr., and Henricus. She created this portrait a year after her husband’s death to honor him as well as the great cartographer Gerard Mercator, whose works formed the basis of Hondius’s stock. Mercator is widely known today for the rectangular world map projection found on so many classroom walls.

In the larger firms of the eighteenth century, engravers specialized on creating particular elements of maps: lettering, borders, etc. Elizabeth engraved this map’s cartouche. The map was designed by Didier Robert de Vaugondy, someone else printed it, and another specialist colored it by hand. Complexity ruled. Elizabeth also worked with Jacques Bellin, and created the cartouche on his Carte Reduite des Isles Britanniques in his Hydrographie Francoise (1757).

Selina’s husband Sidney died in 1830, and she continued publishing his maps, sometimes revised, over several years, signed “S. Hall,” to take advantage of the marketing value of his reputation as a major map publisher of the early nineteenth century. Her maps appeared repeatedly, for example in Adam and Charles Black’s General Atlas (1841), in the New British Atlas (1836), in several editions of Travelling County Atlas (first in 1842), and in Samuel Butler’s Atlas of Ancient History (1871). Various cataloging records and biographical studies have overlooked Selina’s work and have consistently credited work by “S. Hall” to Sidney, even when produced long after his death.

In 1788–1794, Elizabeth Holt published The Independent New-York Gazette, later called The New York Gazette, after her husband John’s death. The center portion of this supplement lists maps for sale from Elizabeth Holt’s publishing company, including Thomas Hutchins’ “Topographical description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North-Carolina.” Reduced facsimile pages from the 1781 French edition have been provided for context.

Widow of London printer George Lowe (fl. 1613–1616), Elizabeth maintained George’s status as member of the Merchant Taylors Company, which recognized her skills. Thus they allowed her in 1627 to apprentice Peter Stent for ten years under her direction. Lowe taught Stent the art of printing engravings and the elements of business practice. He became the most outstanding print publisher in London of his time, likely a result of his apprenticeship with Elizabeth Lowe. The Lowe house/shop was in Lothbury Street, one block from the Royal Exchange, guaranteeing a local market. The shop burned down in London’s Great Fire of 1666.

Following the death of her Huguenot husband, John Rocque, in 1762, Mary Ann Rocque administrated of his estate and continued his business for six years as the publisher of his works. She announced her status in the copyright statements on her maps – the phrase “published according to act” in the bottom margin – but because she used her initials, as on this map, her work has been laregely unrecognized as that of a woman in the map trade.