The Pocket Map Collection al the Cartographic History Library al the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Arlington, Texas, USA, is the subject of this article by Katherine Goodwin who is the Research Associate for the Special Collections Division of the UT A Libraries. She explains why these maps, produced in the nineteenth century for immigrants crossing the Trans¬Mississippi West, present so many possibilities for research showing, as they do, tine and space, geography and history, migration, frontier movement, Indian policy, and even boundary movements and settlement patterns. An annotated bibliography of the maps is available.

IMMIGRANTS CROSSING THE Trans/Mississippi West during the nineteenth century found maps and guide books an indispensable tool as had countless other emigrants through the ages. The first and simplest forms of guide books and maps were used by religious pilgrims in Europe. They were not scientific documents but rather written directions and advice to travellers visiting the shrines and historic sites in the Holy Land. [1] Large numbers of these 'tourist maps' were produced and showed the pilgrims where to bathe in the Jordan River, where to gather palms, and where to see the Sepulchre of Christ [2]


The pilgrims of nineteenth century America were seeking a different Holy Land - one offering a land of opportunity and a new home in the west. Their need for guide books and maps was even greater than the earlier pilgrims. At first, emigrants came down the Atlantic seaboard, crossed the Appalachian Mountains, and settled on the lands of the Ohio valley and the old northwest. The frontier stopped only briefly at the mighty Mississippi and then rolled westward across the 'Great American Desert' to the Pacific coast accelerated by land promoters of the Oregon Territory and the cry of 'Gold' in California.

These shifting American frontiers presented a challenge for nineteenth century mapmakers as vast territories rapidly changed boundaries. The need for new maps of these areas was first acknowledged by President Thomas Jefferson in his request for congressional appropriations for the scientific reconnaissance of Meriweather Lewis and Captain William Clark in the lands of the Louisiana Purchase. The movement continued with the establishment of the United States Army Corps of Topographi¬cal Engineers on March 3, 1813. This group was responsible for further reconnaissance and mapping of the new territories [3] Road building survey crews also mapped the Trans-Mississippian West as did the Pacific Railroad Company, the Mormons, and various land promoters and businessmen who hurriedly pro¬duced western guidebooks with maps. Nineteenth century publishers produced a wealth of cheap and easily available material for those seeking to go to either adjoining states or territories or all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The great map authority, Carl I. Wheat, called these years the 'period of greatest achievement in the mapping of the American West.'


Most travel information was made available by the leading mapmakers in the form of 'pocket maps.' These varied in size from 22 x 28 cms to 85 x 108 cms (8⅛ ins. x 11⅛ ins. to 34 ins. x 43⅛ ins.) and although sometimes folded into the back of a guidebook, they were more often folded into a hard cover small enough to fit into a coat pocket. Some maps were either regional or by states, while others encompassed the total width of the country including the states and western territories across to the Pacific Ocean. They showed topographical features like rivers and major tributaries, mountains, plains and swamps. Usually they included a legend which designated common roads, stage roads, post roads, trails, canals, cities, towns, villages, and post offices. Many maps marked Indian reservations, sections and townships as directed by the Proclamation of 1793, [4] major ports, inlets, bays, and harbours. After 1860, mapmakers often showed extensive railroad systems and even marked routes with 'constructed, under construction, and proposed' and labelled appropriate railroad depots. Although most maps included a legend, those of G. W. and l. H. Colton did not. It may be assumed such information as the designation of rail roads, canals, roads, cities, towns and villages had a standard accepted form and therefore such legends seemed superfluous. The borders of many maps were marked with numbers or letters allowing indexing of major topographical features, counties, cities and other pertinent points on the map. Publishers frequently included travel information such as schedules. costs, and routes of the steamboat companies and later rail roads. Included with many of the maps, especially those produced by Rand McNally and Company, were additional pages placed within the map cover describing the state or territory, its history, natural resources, and statistical information regarding population, manufacturing and usually some 'points of interest' plus several pages of advertisements.


It was this information that aided the migrating Americans as they moved out of the northeast into the old northwest territories. or south to Virginia and across the upper south along the Appalachian Mountains, or through the Cumberland Gap to the Midwest. Whether they were headed for Texas along the Tramel Trace, to lower California via Sante Fe and the Gila Trail, or along the famed Oregon Trail, the immigrants sought maps and guidebooks to point out the direction of the trails, the Indian areas, and the forts.

Explorers, fur trappers and traders, soldiers and missionaries blazed the trails and publicised the opportunities of the new lands. But it was the newspapers, promoters, the mapmakers and guide book authors who stimulated and shaped migration in the nineteenth century. The works of the Coltons, Mitchell, Rand-MeNally, Cram, and other publishers of small pocket maps made travel to the next town, the next territory, or to the western ocean not only more desirable, but possible.