Andrew Ellicott’s Territory of Columbia (1793) was the first map of the Federal Territory. Commissioned by President George Washington, it included Pierre L’Enfant’s Plan and, at Washington’s request, the established port of Georgetown. Ellicott also followed Thomas Jefferson’s advice for orienting the map to the north, giving it a pleasing diamond shape when printed. For nearly seventy years, Ellicott’s map remained the only official map of the entire “Territory of Columbia.”

Plans for Washington, D.C., Elliott Plan.