This is the first state map of Massachusetts to be published in the young republic. The Massachusetts state government, realizing that efficient communications, not just postal routes and roads, but also canals, rivers, and bridges were the key to prosperity and power, began to consider an official state mapping project as early as 1792. Samuel Lewis' map served as a useful interim map during the nine-year campaign that led to the first official state map completed by Osgood Carleton in 1801. It is the work of Samuel Lewis that appeared in Mathew Carey's "General Atlas" published to accompany Carey's American edition of "Guthrie's Geography Improved", a popular geography textbook which was first issued in London in 1770.