This map was first published by Carington Bowles and produced by Richard Seale and Peter Bell in 1768. This is the last but one issue before the addition of Mississippi and Alabama territories. Extensive notes offshore identify the ownership of different territories following the American Revolution. A confined Georgia is displayed along with an even smaller Indiana in the position of present day West Virginia.

In about 1780 Carington Bowles first published “Bowles’s Universal Atlas”. An example of this edition appears to be in the Library of Congress. It was quite possibly intended to be a smaller and more manageable version of Kitchin’s “General Atlas” first published in 1773. Those maps were often multi sheet and folding making their use difficult. In the Bowles atlas the majority of the maps are single sheet. Bowles appears to have re-issued the atlas with revisions just prior to his death in 1793. He was succeeded by his son Henry Carington Bowles (1763-1852) who shortly after formed a partnership with Samuel Carver. The firm was renamed Bowles and Carver and continued trading at No. 69 St. Pauls Churchyard. Most publications by this firm are rare and “Bowles’s Universal Atlas” is no exception. Undated as before the atlas is usually ascribed the date of 1798 or thereafter based on internal evidence. Refer Shirley “Atlases in the British Library” T.Bowl 2a; Tooley’s Dictionary of Mapmakers; McCorkle 768.1; Stevens & Tree 60(f).