John White, Theodor De Bry, & Thomas Harriot, Manuscript Map of the Outer Banks (1590)

On an exploratory expedition for Sir Walter Raleigh, who wanted to establish the first permanent English settlement in the New World, artist and illustrator John White, along with mathematician Thomas Harriot, created this map of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. The map was later revised, engraved, and published by Theodore de Bry. The map shows the North Carolina Coastal Plain in incredible detail, including the Chesapeake Inlet, Pamlico and Albermarle sounds, and Roanoke Island, and extends westward to the sources of the rivers of the sounds. Included on the map is information derived from Native American sources and observations, such as the names and locations of Native American villages, images of individual Indians, native canoes in Pamlico Sound, emblems for various species of trees, and a heavily-forested mountain region that serves as the headwaters of the Roanoke River. White later became the governor of a colony on Roanoke Island, financed by Raleigh. Struggling to survive, the colonists asked White to return to England and bring back necessary supplies. After being held up by the threat of pirates and war with the Spanish, White returned three years later, only to find that his fellow settlers, including his daugher and young granddaughter, had disappeared.