Mark Catesby was his own cartographer as well as his own naturalist — this hand-colored map, bound into The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, charts the entire coastal region he explored across roughly a decade of fieldwork, from the Chesapeake down through Florida and out through the Bahamas and Cuba. Rivers, colonial settlements, and the treacherous shoal-strewn passage of the Bahama Channel are rendered with a practical sailor's-eye precision quite different from the allegorical grandeur of contemporary European atlas maps, an ornate cartouche of shells and coral the only real decorative flourish. What to notice: this map is less a work of art than a field record — the same coastline Catesby walked, sailed, and sketched specimens along, making it a genuine companion piece to every bird and plant plate elsewhere in his book, not a separately commissioned decoration.

Maker: Mark Catesby
Date: 1731–1743
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00299

As chosen: 24 x 18 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	24 x 18 in
Outside size	25.6 x 19.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
10 x 8 in	542	Excellent	Trimmed 8.4%
12 x 8 in	493	Excellent	Trimmed 9.1%
14 x 11 in	394	Excellent	Trimmed 6.7%
16 x 12 in	361	Excellent	Trimmed 2.3%
18 x 12 in	328	Excellent	Trimmed 9.1%
20 x 16 in	271	Excellent	Trimmed 8.4%
24 x 16 in	246	Excellent	Trimmed 9.1%
24 x 18 in	241	Excellent	Trimmed 2.3%
30 x 20 in	197	Good	Trimmed 9.1%
30 x 24 in	180	Good	Trimmed 8.4%
36 x 24 in	164	Good	Trimmed 9.1%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
40 x 30 in	144 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
48 x 36 in	120 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
60 x 40 in	98 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged

Scanned: 2026-10-07
Master file: 5,919 x 4,339 px, srgb
Tone: Darks 126, lights 233 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
Colour: 0% vivid
Sharpness: 33.75