Maps > North America(578 items) > U.S. / West (5 items) 
Sort by: 
 
COLORADO - RAND McNALLY & Co.

Rand, McNally & Co.'s Indexed County and Township Pocket Map and Shippers' Guide of Colorado

Chicago & New York: Rand, McNally & Co., 1892. Folding pocket map, printed in colours. Folds into original lettered thin card covers. With 36pp. letterpress index. Sheet size: 20 13/16 x 27 3/4 inches.

An early edition of Rand McNally's railroad map of Colorado.

The sub-title notes that the map is "accompanied by a new and original compilation and ready reference index, showing in detail the entire railroad system. The Express Company doing business over each road, and accurately locating all Cities, Towns, Post Offices, Railroad Stations, Villages Counties, Islands, Lakes, Rivers, etc." The large map, handsomely printed in colours, shows the state divided into counties, with all the principal towns, roads, rivers, springs and mountain ranges identified. A large Ute Indian Reservation is shown in the southwest corner of the state.

This popular series of guides by Rand McNally continued to be published into the 20th century, however 19th century issues are uncommon.

Phillips A List of Maps of America, p.243.

#24806$600.00
 
 
[FARMER, Walter]

Texas eine geographische Skizze bearbeitet nach Berghaus Länderkunde und den neuesten Forschungen des Prinzen Carl zu Solms Braunfels und anderer Reisenden

[Berlin]: 1847. Map, period hand-colouring in outline, single sheet measuring 16 x 13½ inches. Light horizontal crease.

A very rare map for German emigrants to Texas.

Rare map for German emigrants, showing southeastern Texas from the southernmost tip to the Red River. Several of the fledgling German colonies are underlined in period color, including Neu Braunfels, Indian Point, Galveston, and Friedrichsburg. Also outlined is a larger German grant in west Texas, corresponding to the area around present-day Abilene. A group of German noblemen organized a company, popularly known as the Adelsverein, to settle in Texas beginning in 1844. The leader of this group was the Prince of Solms-Braunfels, and his name in the legend of this map suggests that it is part of the Adelsverein promotional effort. A large number of emigrants flowed from central Germany for the next decade, establishing a distinctive culture which survives to this day. The map shows thirty-two counties, with distances between Galveston and other locations indicated at the bottom of the map.

A rare map, not found in any of the standard sources on Texas cartography.

#26757$6,500.00
 
 
LOWE, Theodore H. and Francis F. BRUNÉ

Map of Clear Creek County, Colorado. Drawn and compiled by Theo. H. Lowe and F.F. Bruné, C.E., Idaho, Colorado, Ter.

Louisville: Hart and Mapother Lithographers, 1866. Lithographed map on six sheets unjoined, period hand-colouring in outline, three inset views (two attributed to be after Alfred E. Mathews), within an ornamental border (backed onto linen at an early date, inked library stamp on verso). Sheet size: 75 x 55 1/2 inches (if joined).

An incredible, large-scale wall map of Clear Creek County, Colorado published less than a decade after the discovery of gold in the mining district and at the very outset of the area's settlement: a significant Colorado cartographic and mining rarity.

Clear Creek County, located approximately 30 miles west of Denver, was one of the original 17 counties of Colorado Territory created in 1861. Settlement in the region, however, began in 1859 during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush, when prospectors settled along Clear Creek hoping to strike it rich.

The large scale of this breathtaking map, projected at two thousand feet to the inch, allows for incredible detail of the county to be shown in the earliest years of its existence. The county is divided into 32 named districts, with a large unnamed area in the southeastern corner of the region. Mountains are named and beautifully shown via soft hachuring. Towns and creeks are identified, as are the wagon roads to Denver and Central City and numerous trails through the mountain passes. The proposed route of the Pacific railroad is clearly shown following the course of Clear Creek though Idaho to George Town, then back along Clear Creek and through Berthoud Pass to the northwest. Larger ranches are named (particularly in the more remote areas), and several businesses, including hotels, groceries and even a bathhouse, are located. The detail on the map, however, is most evident respecting the county's mining resources, with over 125 individual lodes located and named, plus over 25 quartz mills and several saw mills in addition. Most of the lodes are closely congregated along the Clear Creek west of the town of Idaho.

At each of the lower corners of the map are inset views attributed to be after Alfred E. Mathews based on the style and the presence of similar images in his 1866 Pencil Sketches of Colorado. In the lower right corner is a view of Idaho Springs, titled "Idaho The County Seat of the Clear Creek County / Taken from the Illinois Bar" (the county seat moving to Georgetown the year following this map); plate 12 of Pencil Sketches includes a similar view of the town, though from a vantage point south of the town rather than east as in the present view. In the lower left corner is a view of the region north of the town of Empire, titled "Upper Empire and Silver Mountain"; while this view did not appear in Pencil Sketches, Matthews did depict the town of Empire nearby (Pencil Sketches, plate 13). The third inset is an untitled cross-section view of the interior of a working mine, showing a shaft with an adit. A key, located to the left of the mining view, identifies the symbols used on the map and below the key is a listing of the county's mountains with elevations above Denver, with their respective elevations given.

Theodore H. Lowe and Francis F. Bruné came to Colorado during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1859. It is assumed that both were trained surveyors, and Lowe seems to have been employed for a time by the U.S. Geological Survey. A printed note in the upper left corner of the decorative cartouche confirms that Lowe and Bruné compiled this impressive map from actual "instrumental surveys" in 1865. Lowe would be commissioned a deputy mineral surveyor in Colorado Springs in 1872, with Brune receiving the same commission in Leadville in 1878. The 1879 Leadville directory lists Bruné as the City Engineer.

Lowe's contribution to the development of mining in the region is noted in Frank Hall's early history of the state. "The first discoverer of gold in this region [i.e. Cripple Creek in El Paso County], and also the first to develop the vein formation, was Theodore H. Lowe, a noted mining engineer and surveyor. In October, 1881, ten years prior to any settlement at Cripple Creek, while subdividing some pastoral lands for his uncle, William W. Womack, of Kentucky, in the western part of El Paso county, Mr. Lowe found a detached block of what appeared to be float quartz. Breaking off a fragment, he took it to Prof. E. E. Burlingame, the leading assayer of Denver, for analysis, and in due time received a certificate stating that it contained at the rate of $166.23 gold per ton. Encouraged by this result, he returned to the spot and began searching for the outcrop of the vein whence the 'blossom' had been eroded, and at length found it. Locating thereon a claim called the 'Grand View,' he sunk a shaft ten feet deep, as required by law, and recorded the location in the office of the county clerk at Colorado Springs" (Hall, History of the State of Colorado, [Chicago: 1895], vol.IV, p. 102).

In 1881, Lowe would produce an additional map of the region (titled "Map of the Mining Districts surrounding the Townsite of Idaho-Springs"), this time depicting just a portion of the county but on a similar large scale and with a version of the view of Idaho from his 1866 map. (See Streeter sale 2202).

We locate but two other known copies of this very rare 1866 Clear Creek County map (Denver Public Library and University of Colorado, Boulder [copies at Bancroft and Colorado Historical Society listed by OCLC are photocopies of original) and find no copies of the map ever appearing at auction.

Not in Phillips, A List of Maps of America,

#24766$50,000.00
 
 
[SAN FRANCISCO] - A. L. BANCROFT (publisher)

Bancroft's Official Guide Map of City and County of San Francisco, Compiled from Official Maps in Surveyor's Office

San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Co., 1883. Folding pocket map. Inset map titled "Skeleton Map showing the relative position of San Francisco." Folds into thin white card wrappers lettered in blue. Sheet size: 16 7/8 x 22 inches.

Early issue of Bancroft's important map of San Francisco.

A version of this map was first published in 1872, and subsequently revised and republished with some frequency, including editions of 1877, 1881, 1882, 1883 (present copy), 1887 and 1891. This issue covers a smaller area than the previous 1881 edition and does not include the keyed "Reference List of Prominent Places." The map depicts the city as far south as Courtland Avenue and as far west as the newly-created Golden Gate Park. Throughout the city, black lines depict the famed cable car routes.

This issue not in Phillips, A List of Maps of America, or Rumsey.

#24801$475.00
 
 
WARREN, Gouverneur Kemble (1830-1882)

Map of the Territory of the United States from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean; Ordered by the Hon. Jeff'n Davis, Secretary of War to accompany the Reports of the Explorations for a Railroad Route ... Compiled from authorized explorations and other reliable data by Lieut. G. K. Warren, Topl. Engrs. ... under the direction of Bvt. Maj. W. H. Emory, Topl. Engrs. in 1854 and of Capt. A. A. Humphreys, Topl. Engrs. 1854-5-6-7-8 ... Drawn by E. Freyhold. Engr. on Stone by J. Bien...

New York: J. Bien, [1858]. Lithographed folding map, printed on two large unjoined sheets. Listing of "Authorities" (i.e. sources) in the lower right. Early (circa 1861) manuscript annotations identifying mineral deposits as well as an outline of Dakota Territory. Sheet size: approximately 48 x 48 inches, if joined.

Rare 1858 issue of Warren's seminal map of the American West, with manuscript annotations concerning mineral deposits.

"The men who mapped the trans-Mississippi West are among the best known of our national historical figures -- Meriwhether Lewis and William Clark, Zebulon M. Pike, and John C. Fremont, to name a few of the most prominent. But it is the one of the lesser-known mapmakers, Gouverneur Kemble Warren ... who produced the most important map of the American West prior to the Civil War" (Patricia Van Ee, in Mapping the West).

The first edition of Warren's landmark map was engraved by Selmar Siebert and published in Vol. XI of the Pacific Railroad Reports. The map was subsequently re-engraved and re-issued in a variety of formats into the 1870s. The first such re-issue is among the rarest and would be the basis for all subsequent revisions. On copies of that edition, as here, the map is entirely re-engraved, with the topographic hachuring much more beautifully accomplished. Edward Freyhold's name is added below the scale of miles and Julius Bien's imprint appears replacing that of Siebert. Also on that issue, the dates of Humphrey's surveys in the title now include 1858, among other minor changes. Various issues of this edition seem to have been published: printed on two large unjoined sheets (as here); linen-backed on four sheets (Library of Congress and Rumsey); and with both uncoloured and coloured versions. All are rare.

"Warren's masterpiece was a synthesis of the most reliable information available. Integrated into a single map for the first time were the discoveries of the earliest explorers beginning with Lewis and Clark, the information collected in the course of military actions including the Indian wars, the material generated by scientific expeditions, and the newly assembled data compiled during the Pacific Railroad Surveys of 1853-1855" (Mapping the West).

The present copy includes a number of interesting circa 1861 manuscript annotations. The dating of the annotations can be discerned by the outline in blue of the boundaries of the original Dakota Territory (i.e. before being divided into smaller territories). Besides the outline of the territory, across much of the map, the same hand has identified mineral deposits, most notably being gold in present day Montana, Colorado, Washington, and California. Also shown are deposits of coal and silver.

Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West 936 and IV: pp. 84-91 (1857 issue); Rumsey 2750; Mapping the West, pp. 172-175; Phillips, A List of Maps of America, p. 904; Schubert/Koepp, pp. 57-58.

#25676$17,500.00
 
Copyright © 2002-2011 Donald A. Heald