Published for the Bicentennial, this map focuses on the time period of the American Revolution (1775-1783) and features a detailed map of the thirteen colonies with major battles and troop movements labeled. The borders of the map include portraits of famous founding fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington, as well as images of important events and places during the Revolution that had, by 1976, achieved near mythic status in narratives of the Revolution.
Despite the stated focus on the American Revolution, the visual field of the map itself is dominated by the areas outside of the thirteen colonies. This section of the map focuses on what is happening in the future territory of the United States during the Revolutionary time period and includes references to various Indigenous nations, European territorial claims, and the exploits of European colonizers and explorers in these other spaces.
The contemporary 1976 borders of the United States are drawn in the map, helping provide context to the viewer, but also implying the inevitability of Manifest Destiny through the future expansion of the country into spaces and onto people who were quite remote from the United States in the late 1700s. The greater visual space around captions and images, and the limited color palette (when compared to the thirteen colonies) reinforces the idea that this territory was relatively empty land to be expanded into, or, in this case, colored in.
Along similar lines, while Indigenous nations and confederacies are labeled outside of the thirteen colonies, there are none labeled within the colonies themselves, contributing to the false erasure of Indigenous peoples east of the Appalachians, many of whom played key roles in the Revolution itself. The cartouche in the lower right-hand corner includes a place for businesses who distributed this map to have their information printed. This Bicentennial would have been available at local banks, pharmacies, insurance companies, and hung in schools, homes, and libraries.