James Thackara and John Vallance were selected by Andrew Ellicott to engrave the manuscript survey of his large official plan of Washington D.C. which was based on Pierre L'Enfant's designs. While completing this task, the engravers cut a smaller version and released it in the March, 1792 edition of The Universal Asylum and Columbia Magazine several months before Ellicott's "official" map would be finished. Thackara & Vallance's pirated version therefore bears the distinction of being the first printed plan of the nation's capital. The present example is a rare separately issued printing of the map, having never been folded for inclusion in the magazine. Baynton-Williams, Plans of Washington, D.C. 1; Goff, A la Carte, page 148; Tooley, Federal City, 1; Wheat & Brun 527.