A recently discovered hand-coloured geological map of Norfolk and Suffolk attributed to Richard Cowling Taylor (1789–1851)

Abstract

A recently discovered hand-coloured geological map of Norfolk and Suffolk is probably the work of Richard Cowling Taylor (1789–1851). It was originally published by Laurie & Whittle in 1811 and later hand coloured to show the geological strata of the two English counties. The colouration was based on William Smith's 1815 geological map A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with Part of Scotland, but with significant modifications. It appears to have been hand-coloured between 1816 and 1819 and is a very early example of the adoption of Smith's methodology of using colour to represent the different layers of strata on a geological map.