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Pocket maps for travellers
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 March 1989
- Maps
- Unrated
The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.
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An excellent sampling of these pocket maps is contained in the Cartographic History Library, University of Texas at Arlington. Originally acquired with the Eberstadt Collection, this selection contains 269 maps classified as regional or state, thirty-four as city guides, and fifteen as foreign regions. Their dates range from 1800 to 1914 with two-thirds of the collection dated after 1845.
Any adequate description of the collection must begin with the publishers. Unlike earlier maps which were known by the cartographers, these pocket maps were mass produced and labelled by the publishers. They were mostly sold through stationery shops and book dealers. Publishers in the collection included Colton, (both G. W. and I. H.), George F. Cram, Rand McNally, Anthony Finley, Samuel Augustus Mitchell, S. Chapman, Thomas Cowperthwait, Charles DeSilver, E. P Dutton, and H. S. Tanner among the better known. Several, such as Colton, Cram, and Rand MeNally, continue to play a prominent role in commercial mapmaking today.
An interesting feature of the lithographed travel maps was the inclusion of vignettes depicting scenes typical of the region. The illustrations are incorporated in the ornate border of the 1850 Ensign & Thayer, 'Travellers' Guide through the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin.' (Cartographic History Library, Special Collections Division, The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.)
Cartographers of these maps were known, but are somewhat harder to identify. Nineteenth century mapmakers were hired by companies to produce maps for commercial production from a variety of sources including the surveys of the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, General Land Sur¬veys, and other 'authentic sources.' Some, however, retained their identity or professional status as cartographers and were given cartographic credit such as loseph and George Colton, lames Young, and Augustus Mitchell. Their work is prominent in the collection.
Cartographers were not evident in the city guide maps, however, as these maps were generally produced as promotional material for businesses. Of the thirty-four included in the collection, the majority were printed by Rand McNally and Company and encased in a hard paper cover with three folds. These maps usually designated streets, wards, points of interest such as public buildings, universities, government offices, and public places of amusement. They were often augmented by eight to ten pages of descriptions and statistical information with various advertisements for hotels and railroads.
Railroad maps form twenty-seven percent of the Collection. They show the names of the railroad companies either stamped on the map or included in the accompanying index and schedules are often listed as well.
The foreign maps in the Collection cover Cuba, South and Central America, British Columbia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Isthmus of Panama, Salvador, the West Indies and Canada. For the most part these maps were published by American mapmakers and were printed in English for American immigration. There are, however, four in Spanish.
Other maps in the collection are not directed toward migrants, but contain more specialised information about mineral and oil resources. Designations include areas of gold and silver mining, cross sections of 'the Comstock Lode,' and oil wells labelled 'producing;' 'dry,' or 'gas.' In addition, the maps from the old northwest territories almost always include insets marked, 'Lead Regions East of the Mississippi River.'
There are several unusual pocket maps in the collection. One was drawn in 1836 by A. Wadsworth, 'Mount Auburn Cemetery.' It is a plot map, and includes two lithographs and a marked scale of ¾ ' = 100 feet, but reveals no index or legend, or even a clue as to the location of Mount Auburn. However, this map must have been very popular with the clientele as it was marked 'second edition.' Another special map, published in 1883, was directed at a somewhat wider audience. It is a two-colour map by Topp and Yung of the Panama Canal and includes 'canal, gares,' (those sections where ships might pass each other in the canal), 'railroad, dams, deviation of Chagres' River (from the route of the canal), and a designation labelled, 'proposed and abandoned in 1883,' (evidently the first route of the canal), plus the notation that this was the first such map produced and published for the English speaking public. Another map of interest, not because of historical value, but for artistic presenta¬tion was published by J. H. Cook around 1867. This black and white lithograph has a waterfront perspective drawing of 'St. Augustine, East Florida.'
Unusual, but nevertheless a 'pocket map' is the 14 x 145cm, 'View of St. Augustine, East Florisa,' 1867 by J. H. Coock. The perspective drawing, or bird's eye view, of the city from the waterside notes not only public buildings, but the residence of prominent citizens. (Cartographic History Library, Special Collections Division, The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries)
A map of particular interest to western historians is the, 'Topographical Map of the Road from Missouri to Oregon compiled in 1846' by Charles Preuss. Printed on seven sheets of tissue weight paper at the direction of the United States Senate. this map included meteorological observations and excerpts from Captain John C. Fremont’s diary of the second expedition. Charles Preuss. the German born topographer and artist. accompanied Fremont, of the United States Corps of Topo¬graphical Engineers, on the first two western expeditions. The second expedition by Captain Fremont made a circle of the entire west, examined the north-eastern extremity of Great Salt Lake, penetrated Oregon. completed a number of midwinter crossings of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and connected the South Pass reconnaissance of the previous year with the surveys on the Pacific Coast. The illustrations and maps of Charles Preuss, made during the important second expedition, according to Carl I. Wheat 'changed the entire picture of the West, and made a lasting contribution to cartography’ [5].
Maps of this quality form the strength of the pocket map collection. The stated purpose of the Cartographic History Library has been the collection of materials documenting the discovery, exploration, settlement and mapping of Texas and the American Southwest [6] and it was established with the purchases of the cartographic items of the Eberstadt Collection [7] A book dealer in Austin, Texas, John Jenkins, obtained the entire stock of Edward Eberstadt and Sons, well known dealers in Americana in 1975. Jenkins subsequently sold the maps to the University of Texas at Arlington in 1976. To this core have been added additional maps and atlases gleaned from leading dealers in Amsterdam, London. and Mexico City. In addition, works on geography. explorers' narratives. travellers' accounts, journals, government documents and standard reference works, arc also housed in the Library to support ongoing research [8]
COPYRIGHT Winter 1989 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Any adequate description of the collection must begin with the publishers. Unlike earlier maps which were known by the cartographers, these pocket maps were mass produced and labelled by the publishers. They were mostly sold through stationery shops and book dealers. Publishers in the collection included Colton, (both G. W. and I. H.), George F. Cram, Rand McNally, Anthony Finley, Samuel Augustus Mitchell, S. Chapman, Thomas Cowperthwait, Charles DeSilver, E. P Dutton, and H. S. Tanner among the better known. Several, such as Colton, Cram, and Rand MeNally, continue to play a prominent role in commercial mapmaking today.
An interesting feature of the lithographed travel maps was the inclusion of vignettes depicting scenes typical of the region. The illustrations are incorporated in the ornate border of the 1850 Ensign & Thayer, 'Travellers' Guide through the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin.' (Cartographic History Library, Special Collections Division, The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.)
Cartographers of these maps were known, but are somewhat harder to identify. Nineteenth century mapmakers were hired by companies to produce maps for commercial production from a variety of sources including the surveys of the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, General Land Sur¬veys, and other 'authentic sources.' Some, however, retained their identity or professional status as cartographers and were given cartographic credit such as loseph and George Colton, lames Young, and Augustus Mitchell. Their work is prominent in the collection.
Cartographers were not evident in the city guide maps, however, as these maps were generally produced as promotional material for businesses. Of the thirty-four included in the collection, the majority were printed by Rand McNally and Company and encased in a hard paper cover with three folds. These maps usually designated streets, wards, points of interest such as public buildings, universities, government offices, and public places of amusement. They were often augmented by eight to ten pages of descriptions and statistical information with various advertisements for hotels and railroads.
Railroad maps form twenty-seven percent of the Collection. They show the names of the railroad companies either stamped on the map or included in the accompanying index and schedules are often listed as well.
The foreign maps in the Collection cover Cuba, South and Central America, British Columbia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Isthmus of Panama, Salvador, the West Indies and Canada. For the most part these maps were published by American mapmakers and were printed in English for American immigration. There are, however, four in Spanish.
Other maps in the collection are not directed toward migrants, but contain more specialised information about mineral and oil resources. Designations include areas of gold and silver mining, cross sections of 'the Comstock Lode,' and oil wells labelled 'producing;' 'dry,' or 'gas.' In addition, the maps from the old northwest territories almost always include insets marked, 'Lead Regions East of the Mississippi River.'
There are several unusual pocket maps in the collection. One was drawn in 1836 by A. Wadsworth, 'Mount Auburn Cemetery.' It is a plot map, and includes two lithographs and a marked scale of ¾ ' = 100 feet, but reveals no index or legend, or even a clue as to the location of Mount Auburn. However, this map must have been very popular with the clientele as it was marked 'second edition.' Another special map, published in 1883, was directed at a somewhat wider audience. It is a two-colour map by Topp and Yung of the Panama Canal and includes 'canal, gares,' (those sections where ships might pass each other in the canal), 'railroad, dams, deviation of Chagres' River (from the route of the canal), and a designation labelled, 'proposed and abandoned in 1883,' (evidently the first route of the canal), plus the notation that this was the first such map produced and published for the English speaking public. Another map of interest, not because of historical value, but for artistic presenta¬tion was published by J. H. Cook around 1867. This black and white lithograph has a waterfront perspective drawing of 'St. Augustine, East Florida.'
Unusual, but nevertheless a 'pocket map' is the 14 x 145cm, 'View of St. Augustine, East Florisa,' 1867 by J. H. Coock. The perspective drawing, or bird's eye view, of the city from the waterside notes not only public buildings, but the residence of prominent citizens. (Cartographic History Library, Special Collections Division, The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries)
A map of particular interest to western historians is the, 'Topographical Map of the Road from Missouri to Oregon compiled in 1846' by Charles Preuss. Printed on seven sheets of tissue weight paper at the direction of the United States Senate. this map included meteorological observations and excerpts from Captain John C. Fremont’s diary of the second expedition. Charles Preuss. the German born topographer and artist. accompanied Fremont, of the United States Corps of Topo¬graphical Engineers, on the first two western expeditions. The second expedition by Captain Fremont made a circle of the entire west, examined the north-eastern extremity of Great Salt Lake, penetrated Oregon. completed a number of midwinter crossings of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and connected the South Pass reconnaissance of the previous year with the surveys on the Pacific Coast. The illustrations and maps of Charles Preuss, made during the important second expedition, according to Carl I. Wheat 'changed the entire picture of the West, and made a lasting contribution to cartography’ [5].
Maps of this quality form the strength of the pocket map collection. The stated purpose of the Cartographic History Library has been the collection of materials documenting the discovery, exploration, settlement and mapping of Texas and the American Southwest [6] and it was established with the purchases of the cartographic items of the Eberstadt Collection [7] A book dealer in Austin, Texas, John Jenkins, obtained the entire stock of Edward Eberstadt and Sons, well known dealers in Americana in 1975. Jenkins subsequently sold the maps to the University of Texas at Arlington in 1976. To this core have been added additional maps and atlases gleaned from leading dealers in Amsterdam, London. and Mexico City. In addition, works on geography. explorers' narratives. travellers' accounts, journals, government documents and standard reference works, arc also housed in the Library to support ongoing research [8]
- Lloyd A. Brown. Tile Story of Maps (New York: Dover Publications. Inc. 1979). p. 8-1•85. The first of these books was produced in 330 AD by an anonymous traveller who journeyed la the Holy Land via southern Europe. This first guidebook was callce. Itinery /sic/ From Bordeau to Jerusalem.
- Ibid .. p. 107.
- Howard R. Lamar. ed. The Readers' Encyclopedia of tile American West (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell. 1977). p. 166•167.
- This act, passed by the Congress of Confederation. provided for the survey of public lands into townships six miles square. each containing thirty-six sections of 640 acres numbered in a prescribed pattern. This survey was a prerequisite for settlement.
- Lamar. Encyclopedia. p. -106-407: and Charles Fremonl, Geographical Memoirs Upon Upper California in Illustration of his Map of Oregon and California, introduction by Allan Nevins and Dale Morgan. (San Francisco:The Book Club of California. 1964 reprint).
- Robert Sidney Martin. 'Treasures of the Cartographic History Library at the University of Texas at Arlington.• The Map Collector 3 (1979): p. 15.
- John A. Jenkins. The Eberstadt Caper (Austin: The Pemberton Press. 1975).
- Interview with Dr. Charles COllcy. then Director of Special Collections.University of Texas at Arlington Library. Arlington. Texas. 18 March 1985.
COPYRIGHT Winter 1989 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
