Fun with Maps ISSUE 2025-103

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (June 9, 2025) – In today’s edition of Fun with Maps, we recall the British roots of a historic U.S. southern city.       

GEORGIA ON MY MIND

On June 9, 1732, James Edward Oglethorpe was granted a parcel of land in the colonies by King George II. 

The charter allowed for the establishment of a colony, primarily funded by the philanthropic Oglethorpe, to serve as a military buffer for the English colonies from the more southern Spanish settlements.

Oglethorpe and his investors also planned the area as a utopian society where the “worthy poor” could get a fresh start at a new life, a social experiment serving as a reaction to the unseemly treatment of debtors and other “petty” criminals in Britain’s prison system.

Oglethorpe led a group of colonists to establish the area which became the city of Savannah in 1733.  The land grant eventually became the state of Georgia, named after the king of course, and was the last British colony settled in the soon-to-be-established United States.

This map of Georgia is by Grey from 1873.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.