President George Washington employed the services of Pierre Charles L’Enfant (1754-1825) to layout a planned capital city on the shores of the Potomac River. At a meeting of the Commissioners in September 1791 a letter was written to L’Enfant in which it was stated ‘We have agreed that the federal district shall be called the ‘Territory of Columbia’ and the federal city ‘The City of Washington’. Phillips states ‘four great intellects stand out pre-eminently in the founding of the city: Washington, L’Enfant, Jefferson and Ellicott’. Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) was the surveyor tasked with laying out the physical city.

This is the second large plan of the city to be published preceded only by that in Boston engraved by Samuel Hill. This work is ‘known as the ‘Philadelphia engraving’ or the ‘official plan’. As it was issued to promote sales of lots, it bears details not found on previous maps, such as numbers of squares, depths of water, wharves, projected bridges over the Potomac and the Eastern Branch, the proposed city canal, and the ornamental planting along the Mall’ (Burr).

ANB, American National Biography; Baynton-Williams mapforum.com issue 12 no. 5b; Deak (1988) 191; Phillips (1917) ‘The Beginnings of Washington’ pp. 14-38; Ristow (1995) pp. 246-8; Verner (1969) ‘Imago Mundi’ 23 no. 5; Stephenson, Richard W. (2014) ‘From L’Enfant to the Senate Park Commission: Mapping the Nation’s Capital from 1791 to 1902’ Occasional Paper Series no. 6, Philip Lee Phillips Map Society Publication; Wheat & Brun 531.