Historians of the Revolutionary War in America have been fortunate in their resources: few wars in history have such a rich literary and cartographic heritage. The high skills of the surveyors, artists, and engravers who delineated the topography and fields of battle allow us to observe the unfolding of events that ultimately defined the United States.

Richard H. Brown is a collector of maps and views of the French and Indian War and American Revolution. He is vice chairman of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library and serves as a councilor of the American Antiquarian Society. He is also a member of the Madison Council of the Library of Congress and the Library Committee of the New-York Historical Society.

Paul E. Cohen is the coauthor of Manhattan in Maps, which received the New York City Book Award in 1997. He is also the author of Mapping the West and the co-editor of American Cities. He is a partner in Cohen & Taliaferro LLC, New York City, dealers in rare books and antique maps.

Barnet Schecter is the author of The Battle for New York, the hinge battle in the American Revolution, The Devil’s Own Work, a chronicle of the Civil War draft riots in New York, and George Washington’s America: A Biography Through His Maps.