Joseph F.W. Des Barres, Mount Desart Island The Atlantic Neptune: published for the use of the Royal Navy of Great Britain. Vol. 2. London: [s.n.], 1777.
![Joseph F.W. Des Barres, Mount Desart Island The Atlantic Neptune: published for the use of the Royal Navy of Great Britain. Vol. 2. London: [s.n.], 1777.](https://sca.bowdoin.edu/50-books/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/nggallery/50-books/desbarres.jpg "Joseph F.W. Des Barres, Mount Desart Island The Atlantic Neptune: published for the use of the Royal Navy of Great Britain. Vol. 2. London: [s.n.], 1777.")
The first monumental marine atlas containing both nautical charts and views of the North American east coast (from Nova Scotia to the mouth of the Mississippi River).
Published in England and issued variously with revised maps between 1774 and 1784, the charts are of such quality and detail that they were the official source for the British navy during the Revolutionary War and remained in use as the standard nautical charts of the East Coast for over fifty years. The entire work includes over 250 plates of engravings, some having gone through as many as ten variant printings. Both small and large editions were published. Because the maps were continually revised and reissued, and because individual charts were available for purchase separately, practically every extant copy is different. Bowdoin College holds many of the charts from volume 2 (1777) of the large paper edition, unbound.
Gift: Theodore Lincoln.