Portrait Manuscript Headline




John Speed is my honorable ancestor. It was from him (indirectly) that I acquired the middle name of "Speed." I have been interested in maps since I was a Boy Scout, but the maps of John Speed are special, and I have chosen to make a hobby out of collecting and studying them.

 

  • Some of them show parts of the world that were not fully explored at the time of his life.

  • The maps show sailing ships, flags, natives, sea monsters, mythical beings, and more.

  • He is credited with publishing the first atlas in English.

  • He is also credited with being the first cartographer to make the mistake of representing California as an island in an atlas.

  • He produced the maps of Canaan that were bound into the first edition of the King James Bible.

  • He developed and wrote the Postdiluvian Genealogy of Noah also bound in the first edition of the King James Bible

  • He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare, Thomas Harriott, and Sir Walter Raliegh and lived in London.

  • A selected sub-set of Speed maps that relate to Thomas Harriott, and Sir Walter Raliegh

  • Much More