The town of Boston in New England - Public domain map

Made in Boston: Bonner's map depicts Boston before centuries of landfill transformed its coastline. His distinctive design combines plan and perspective views to convey maximum information and achieve decorative effect. It shows clearly the patterns of settlement, dense in the North End and along Cornhill and King Streets but thinning toward the south and west. The abundance of wharves, shipyards and ropewalks reflects Boston's flourishing maritime economy. Captain Bonner was more comfortable drawing sailing vessels than topography: the shipping in the harbor is carefully rendered, whereas simple bumps near the Common represent the "Trimontane" that once dominated the town. Beneath Our Feet: The city of Boston was settled by Europeans in 1630; however, the area had been home to Native Americans for thousands of years prior. This area, known as Shawmut to indigenous residents, was a peninsula that jutted out into Boston Harbor and was connected to the mainland by a thin strip called Boston Neck. This early 18th-century map illustrates the colonial "shape" of Boston nearly 100 years after Puritan colonists arrived, and depicts areas where Native objects were discovered during archaeological digs. Both the spear point and copper arrowhead displayed here were found in the Boston Common, while the fishweir stakes were found in nearby Back Bay.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library