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- From Maps to Riches – The mapping career of Jay Gould
From Maps to Riches – The mapping career of Jay Gould
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 June 1979
- Maps
- Unrated
Lithography and printing were contracted to Robert Pearsall Smith, of Philadelphia, who was heavily involved in county map production during the 1850s, particularly in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. [5] Smith served as a liaison between local county surveyors and lithographers and printers, most of whom were at the time located in Philadelphia. Smith himself did not operate a lithographic printing plant.
Jay Gould in his mature years when he was deeply involved in financial manoeuvring.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
The cost of printing the Ulster County map was two hundred dollars, plus sixty dollars for the views and nine dollars for proof alterations. A second, revised edition was published in 1854. Unlike the first edition, it carries a copyright registration notice in Tillson's name. In October, 1853, four hundred copies of the map were delivered to Tillson, who apparently sold them directly to users, or distributed them to dealers in the several cities and towns in the county. The retail price for the Ulster County map was five dollars.
During the decade 1850 to 1860, there was great activity in county mapping, particularly in New England, the Middle Atlantic States, and in the states north of the Ohio River. This was largely stimulated by the adaptation of lithography to map printing in the United States. The new technique was less costly and more expedient than that previously employed, i.e., reproduction from copper engraved plates. By drafting maps with an appropriate ink, it was possible to transfer the image from paper to a lithographic stone, from which multiple copies could be printed. Local surveyors could, therefore, have their county maps printed at reasonable cost. Philadelphia and New York City were, at the time, the principal centres for lithographic printing.
Around 1852, Robert P. Smith and an associate, John Delafield of Se ne ca County, New York, sought to have the New York State Legislature pass a bill requiring each school district to purchase a map of the state, as well as one of the pertinent county. [6] Smith negotiated with various local surveyors to prepare county maps from which a map of New York State was to be compiled.
Jay Gould's Map of Cohoes, New York, Published in 1854,
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
Tillson and Brink were among the first county map surveyors with whom Smith negotiated. His plans are revealed in a letter, dated January 4, 1853. From Albany, Smith wrote, 'As arranged in our interview .... I hereby agree to furnish an engraving [i.e. a lithographic reproduction] of your new map of Ulster County, New York ... without charge or cost to you. In repayment you give me the full use of the said map ... for use and reduction for a State map of New York. You also give me the privilege of taking as many impressions as may be necessary for supplying schools by a contract with the State of New York - which use for a State map and copies for schools are to be without charge to me the engraving furnished being full compensation therefore. The engraving is to include four views reductions of plans of villages for the margin and any other matter you may wish to insert. The copyright is to be taken out and owned by me you having the privilege of making any town maps from the surveys. I am privileged to give away a few copies but am not to sell any copies except for schools. [7]
Tillson and Brink, apparently did not sign a contract with Smith for, as noted, Tillson personally registered the Ulster map for copyright. A number of other surveyors did, however, sign agreements with Smith, and the copyrights for their maps were registered in his name.
Detail of Gould's Map of Delaware County, New York, showing Town of Roxbury, the birthplace of Jay Gould and of the distinguished naturalist and author, John Burroughs.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
After he had received payment from Tillson for his rights in the Ulster map, Jay Gould went to Albany where, in the autumn and winter of 1852-1853, he enrolled in Albany Academy. There is reason to believe that J ay became acquainted in Albany with Robert P. Smith and John Delafield, and with the proposed act to provide state and county maps to all school districts, which was introduced in both houses of the Legislature in January 1853.
Gould was apparently impressed with the potential benefits to surveyors if the law were enacted. This induced him to have another try at county mapping. He chose Albany County and, in the summer of 1853, he and his cousin, LB. Moore, carried out surveys. The map title indicates that it was 'Drawn by Jay Gould', and he probably spent the latter months of 1853 at this task. Gould probably solicited advance subscriptions for the map in Albany as well as in some of the larger villages and towns. Jay seems also to have promoted the idea of including marginal sketches of the homes of some of the more affluent residents, on a fee basis. The 'Map of Albany County' has thirty-one illustrations, of which eighteen are of private homes.
There is no copyright registration notice on the first edition of the Albany map. A second edition, which appears to have few if any changes, was registered for copyright in 1854 by Robert Pearsall Smith. This confirms that Smith and Gould were business associates. It seems unlikely, however, as some accounts state, that Gould was a major collaborator, with Smith and Delafield, on the legislative proposal heretofore mentioned.
Work on the Albany County map brought Jay several other commissions, including one from the Cohoes Manufacturing Company, to prepare a map of the village of Cohoes, located to the north of Albany. He apparently conducted this survey also during the summer of 1853. The map, which is undated, was probably published in 1854. It is titled 'Map of Cohoes New York. Published by Gould and More. Drawn by J. Gould.' The map may have been completed before Gould's contact with R.P. Smith, for it was lithographed and printed by Sarony & Major, of New York City. There is a panoramic view of Cohoes Village, a sketch of Great Cohoes Falls, and a Cohoes Business Directory in the margins. Gould received six hundred dollars for his work on the Cohoes map.
Jay is credited with having also surveyed, in 1853, part of the route for the Albany to Shakers plank road. While engaged in the survey Gould reported to a former surveying instructor, James Oliver, that 'I succeeded in everything without any trouble until I came to making the estimates of cost, embankments, excavations, and culverts, especially the embankments and excavations, when I came nearly being floored for a second time. But just then Gillespie [author of a surveying textbook of the period] stepped in with his Roads and Railroads where I found the proper information. [8]
Title cartouche and northwest segment of Gould's Map of Delaware County, New York, 1856.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
The road survey was completed in March 1853 and, with no other jobs forthcoming, Gould decided to prepare a map of his home county, Delaware. He returned to Roxbury and set up a small office above his father's hardware store. To insure a good reception for the proposed map, Jay prepared a prospectus which he mailed, on April 30, 1854, to residents throughout the county, soliciting their patronage. He engaged several assistants to do the actual surveying for, as he once wrote to a friend, 'to tell the plain truth, my education in surveying is made up of the leisure time I had in the tinshop the winter before I went to Ulster, and all I have gained since has been of a practical character, so you see I do not possess a thorough knowledge of the important principles that are involved in this pursuit. [9]
One assistant was John Champlin, who married Ellen More, one of Jay's cousins. Champlin remained in surveying for but a short time and, after completing work on the Delaware map, he moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan where he read law in the office of an older brother. He subsequently became professor of law at the University of Michigan and, later in his career John Champlin served as Chief Justice of the Michigan State Supreme Court.
Jay also sought the aid of local newspaper editors to help promote the Delaware County map. The technique of gentle pressure he employed was a portent of subsequent financial manoeuvring. On his seventeenth birthday, Gould made a small cash contribution to a Delaware County newspaper, the Bloomsville Mirror, which was edited and published by his good friend, Simon B. Champion. Several months after this act of generosity, Jay wrote to Champion, 'thus far in this State, without exception, these [county] maps have met with unbounded success, having been liberally and, some of them, munificently countenanced by the Supervisors and sometimes by individuals. In Delaware County the Supervisors ought to encourage it by having a map for each of the School Districts. I wan t you to give me an editorial to this effect. [10]
Jay Gould in his mature years when he was deeply involved in financial manoeuvring.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
The cost of printing the Ulster County map was two hundred dollars, plus sixty dollars for the views and nine dollars for proof alterations. A second, revised edition was published in 1854. Unlike the first edition, it carries a copyright registration notice in Tillson's name. In October, 1853, four hundred copies of the map were delivered to Tillson, who apparently sold them directly to users, or distributed them to dealers in the several cities and towns in the county. The retail price for the Ulster County map was five dollars.
During the decade 1850 to 1860, there was great activity in county mapping, particularly in New England, the Middle Atlantic States, and in the states north of the Ohio River. This was largely stimulated by the adaptation of lithography to map printing in the United States. The new technique was less costly and more expedient than that previously employed, i.e., reproduction from copper engraved plates. By drafting maps with an appropriate ink, it was possible to transfer the image from paper to a lithographic stone, from which multiple copies could be printed. Local surveyors could, therefore, have their county maps printed at reasonable cost. Philadelphia and New York City were, at the time, the principal centres for lithographic printing.
Around 1852, Robert P. Smith and an associate, John Delafield of Se ne ca County, New York, sought to have the New York State Legislature pass a bill requiring each school district to purchase a map of the state, as well as one of the pertinent county. [6] Smith negotiated with various local surveyors to prepare county maps from which a map of New York State was to be compiled.
Jay Gould's Map of Cohoes, New York, Published in 1854,
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
Tillson and Brink were among the first county map surveyors with whom Smith negotiated. His plans are revealed in a letter, dated January 4, 1853. From Albany, Smith wrote, 'As arranged in our interview .... I hereby agree to furnish an engraving [i.e. a lithographic reproduction] of your new map of Ulster County, New York ... without charge or cost to you. In repayment you give me the full use of the said map ... for use and reduction for a State map of New York. You also give me the privilege of taking as many impressions as may be necessary for supplying schools by a contract with the State of New York - which use for a State map and copies for schools are to be without charge to me the engraving furnished being full compensation therefore. The engraving is to include four views reductions of plans of villages for the margin and any other matter you may wish to insert. The copyright is to be taken out and owned by me you having the privilege of making any town maps from the surveys. I am privileged to give away a few copies but am not to sell any copies except for schools. [7]
Tillson and Brink, apparently did not sign a contract with Smith for, as noted, Tillson personally registered the Ulster map for copyright. A number of other surveyors did, however, sign agreements with Smith, and the copyrights for their maps were registered in his name.
Detail of Gould's Map of Delaware County, New York, showing Town of Roxbury, the birthplace of Jay Gould and of the distinguished naturalist and author, John Burroughs.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
After he had received payment from Tillson for his rights in the Ulster map, Jay Gould went to Albany where, in the autumn and winter of 1852-1853, he enrolled in Albany Academy. There is reason to believe that J ay became acquainted in Albany with Robert P. Smith and John Delafield, and with the proposed act to provide state and county maps to all school districts, which was introduced in both houses of the Legislature in January 1853.
Gould was apparently impressed with the potential benefits to surveyors if the law were enacted. This induced him to have another try at county mapping. He chose Albany County and, in the summer of 1853, he and his cousin, LB. Moore, carried out surveys. The map title indicates that it was 'Drawn by Jay Gould', and he probably spent the latter months of 1853 at this task. Gould probably solicited advance subscriptions for the map in Albany as well as in some of the larger villages and towns. Jay seems also to have promoted the idea of including marginal sketches of the homes of some of the more affluent residents, on a fee basis. The 'Map of Albany County' has thirty-one illustrations, of which eighteen are of private homes.
There is no copyright registration notice on the first edition of the Albany map. A second edition, which appears to have few if any changes, was registered for copyright in 1854 by Robert Pearsall Smith. This confirms that Smith and Gould were business associates. It seems unlikely, however, as some accounts state, that Gould was a major collaborator, with Smith and Delafield, on the legislative proposal heretofore mentioned.
Work on the Albany County map brought Jay several other commissions, including one from the Cohoes Manufacturing Company, to prepare a map of the village of Cohoes, located to the north of Albany. He apparently conducted this survey also during the summer of 1853. The map, which is undated, was probably published in 1854. It is titled 'Map of Cohoes New York. Published by Gould and More. Drawn by J. Gould.' The map may have been completed before Gould's contact with R.P. Smith, for it was lithographed and printed by Sarony & Major, of New York City. There is a panoramic view of Cohoes Village, a sketch of Great Cohoes Falls, and a Cohoes Business Directory in the margins. Gould received six hundred dollars for his work on the Cohoes map.
Jay is credited with having also surveyed, in 1853, part of the route for the Albany to Shakers plank road. While engaged in the survey Gould reported to a former surveying instructor, James Oliver, that 'I succeeded in everything without any trouble until I came to making the estimates of cost, embankments, excavations, and culverts, especially the embankments and excavations, when I came nearly being floored for a second time. But just then Gillespie [author of a surveying textbook of the period] stepped in with his Roads and Railroads where I found the proper information. [8]
Title cartouche and northwest segment of Gould's Map of Delaware County, New York, 1856.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
The road survey was completed in March 1853 and, with no other jobs forthcoming, Gould decided to prepare a map of his home county, Delaware. He returned to Roxbury and set up a small office above his father's hardware store. To insure a good reception for the proposed map, Jay prepared a prospectus which he mailed, on April 30, 1854, to residents throughout the county, soliciting their patronage. He engaged several assistants to do the actual surveying for, as he once wrote to a friend, 'to tell the plain truth, my education in surveying is made up of the leisure time I had in the tinshop the winter before I went to Ulster, and all I have gained since has been of a practical character, so you see I do not possess a thorough knowledge of the important principles that are involved in this pursuit. [9]
One assistant was John Champlin, who married Ellen More, one of Jay's cousins. Champlin remained in surveying for but a short time and, after completing work on the Delaware map, he moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan where he read law in the office of an older brother. He subsequently became professor of law at the University of Michigan and, later in his career John Champlin served as Chief Justice of the Michigan State Supreme Court.
Jay also sought the aid of local newspaper editors to help promote the Delaware County map. The technique of gentle pressure he employed was a portent of subsequent financial manoeuvring. On his seventeenth birthday, Gould made a small cash contribution to a Delaware County newspaper, the Bloomsville Mirror, which was edited and published by his good friend, Simon B. Champion. Several months after this act of generosity, Jay wrote to Champion, 'thus far in this State, without exception, these [county] maps have met with unbounded success, having been liberally and, some of them, munificently countenanced by the Supervisors and sometimes by individuals. In Delaware County the Supervisors ought to encourage it by having a map for each of the School Districts. I wan t you to give me an editorial to this effect. [10]
