Significant Maps Covering St. Mary's County Arranged Chronologically

• 1612 - John Smith's Map of Virginia - This map is based on a three-month exploratory survey by boat in the summer of 1608 under the direction of Captain John Smith and is the earliest published map of the entire Chesapeake region.
  
• 1600's - Menard's Map of 17th Century Patents - In early 1971 the St. Mary's City Commission retained Russell Menard to study landholding settlement patterns and population growth in seventeenth century St. Mary's County.  The result was a map showing the probable location of 425 of the nearly 500 surveys listed in the 1705 rent roll for the county. The placement of the tracts should be considered tentative at best, but the map provides a useful tool for study of the early settlements of the county. 
  • Menard's Map of 17th Century Patents
  • Article About Menard's Map - Overview of compilation process, copy of the map, lists of tracts by hundreds, and index of owners to tracts.  From the May 1973 Chronicles of St. Mary's
• 1640-1663 - The Manors of the Lower Patuxent River  - Not much is known about this hand-drawn map by Henry Barkley, dated 1935. It seems fairly accurately drawn, shows an abundance of historical information, and even lists sources of information.
• 1670 - Augustine Herrman's Map of Virginia and Maryland - This was a large 4-sheet map that provided some of the earliest details about the Chesapeake Bay region.  Herrman spent ten years surveying for this map which was made at the request of Lord Calvert, in part to support boundary discussions between Maryland and Virginia.  Only five copies of this map are known to exist.  While not 100% geographically accurate (good for 1670), this map does provide valuable information on the location of plantation houses on the water.  The article below is a summary of research done to identify the plantations; see especially the section on St. Mary's County. 
  • Map (original orientation)
  • Map (rotated with North up)

  • Article - A Wonderful Satellite View Of The American Mid-Atlantic In A 1670 Map By Augustine Herrman.  An excellent series of three articles published in the Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Magazine.  Permission was graciously granted by the Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Society to reproduce and post here.

    • Part 1, December 2019.  Mostly an overview of the map and its history. 
    • Part 3, December 2021.  A discussion of the 135 plantations notated on the map. SMCHS' Pete Himmelheber was a co-author of this article.
• 1794 - Map of the State of Maryland - Dennis Griffith, a surveyor, produced this accurate map of Maryland, which is considered the finest eighteenth-century map of the state. Carefully executed and containing many topographic details, Griffith's map was an achievement for its time and is considered the first official state map. (Description from Mapping Maryland)
• 1824 - Part of St. Mary's County - This is a large map that was made in 1824 by the U.S. Topographical Engineers under the direction of Major James Kearney.  It consists of only the southern half of the county - roughly from Cedar Point to Point Lookout.  It was undoubtedly made as part of the Topographical Engineers mandate to survey the early nation's waterways, and to prepare defenses.  The accuracy of this early map is astounding for the time, as the county's shorelines and waterways match almost perfectly to today's maps.  One incredibly valuable aspect of this map is that it shows locations of homes along with the names of the owners/occupants.  The original and only known copy map is large, approximately 48" x 60" and is in the National Archives in College Park, MD.  
  • Map (JPG) 
  • Map (PDF)
• 1824 - Map Showing the Relative Positions of the Projected Forts for the Defense of the Patuxent River - This map appears to be based on the 1823-1824 map above, but just shows the Patuxent River.  An interesting feature is the planned forts at Point Patience and Thomas Point (a.k.a Town Point).
• 1835 - Map B - Stratigraphy of St. Mary's and Charles Counties
• 1841 - Map of Maryland -Lucas Fielding Jr.
• 1857 - Map of The Patuxent and St. Mary's Rivers - This map was compiled from the 1824 maps done by the Bureau of Topographic Engineers.  It has detail for the Patuxent River side of St. Mary's county farther north than on the 1824 map.
• 1859 - Wathen Survey of Henry Key's Land (Leondardtown) - This is a beautifully done survey map of the lands of Henry Key, the owner of Americus Felix Secundus (today's Tudor Hall and the home of the SMCHS).  The survey covers land on the east from Tudor Hall to the west where current route 5 intersects with Newtowne Neck Road.
• Map of Point Lookout Showing Hammond General Hospital and US Gen'l Depot for Prisoners of War - A beautiful colored lithograph from the Library of Congress showing a bird's-eye view of the Point Lookout peninsula.  Dozens of buildings are shown and annotated..  
• 1866 - Martinet's Map of St. Mary's County - These pages are from Martinet's Atlas of Maryland, which contained a double-page spread for each county, as well as a one-page description of the county.  It also contains statistics about each county including population (white & black), and agricultural yields.
• 1881 - Map Showing the Southern Maryland Railroad and It's Connections - This map was probably included in a prospectus attempting to promote a railroad through St. Mary's County.  Several attempts were made to build this railroad beginning in 1868.  It was never constructed.
• 1903 - St. Mary's County Showing Topography and Election Districts
  
• 1928 - Leonardtown, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps - These maps were designed to assist fire insurance agents in determining the degree of hazard associated with a particular property and therefore show the size, shape, and construction of dwellings. The maps also indicate widths and names of streets, property boundaries, building use, and house and block numbers.  Sanborn maps are thus an unrivaled source of information for their time about the structure and use of buildings in American cities.
• 1935 - Map of Maryland State Road System
• 1959 - St. Mary's County Topography and Election Districts

Interactive County GIS Map - The St. Mary's County GIS website map is an excellent resource for historical research.  The map is used by selecting a basemap from the "Basemap Gallery" icon on the left side of the screen.  Basemaps consist of either satellite/aircraft imagery, maps, or topography (elevation). Only one basemap may be selected at a time.

Then the user can overlay numerous layers on the basemap by selecting sources from the "Map Layers" menu at the top right of the screen.  Types of layers available include property boundaries (with links to current owner and deed information), locations of historic districts, places on the National Historic Register and Maryland Historic Trust Sites.    

This interactive map allows simultaneous viewing of one county basemap or satellite imagery with a variety of historic maps.  A current and historic map can be viewed together by changing the transparency of the historic map or by swiping left/right between the two maps.

Many of the maps listed on the left side of this page are available for viewing interactively. Over 240 USGS topographic maps are available for viewing through the "Map Layers" menu.  USGS maps are at various scales and cover from roughly the 1890's to today.

 

Other Historic Map Resources

• Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps
• David Rumsey Map Collection
• Historical USGS Topographical Quad Map Viewer
• Library of Congress Map Collection
• Maryland Map Collection from the Universities of Maryland
• Maryland Center for History & Culture Digital Map Collection
• Maryland State Archives Map Collections
• Old Maps Online
• Mapping Maryland's Counties - Enoch Pratt Free Library
• Calvert County Historic Maps