This map is a rare first edition of the earliest navigational chart of Cape Cod and the Islands, created by Dutch cartographer Arent Roggeveen in 1675. A generous gift from the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association, this chart is the first detailed mapping of the area around Cape Cod, extending from Rhode Island up to Plymouth.
Arent Roggeveen, born in 1628 in the Netherlands, was steward of navigational charts and documents for the Dutch East and West India Companies. He compiled the first series of large-scale charts of North America’s coastlines, a landmark, as many had never been mapped in such detail.