“Bartlett’s Illustrated Map of Boston”, fusing the pictorial map and bird’s-eye view genres
James S. Talbot / G. H. Bartlett Lith. 72 Duane St. N. Y. / Printed by Hatch & Co. N. Y., [on front board:] BARTLETTS’ PICTORIAL MAP OF BOSTON. [on map:] BARTLETT’S ILLUSTRATED MAP OF BOSTON. OR STRANGER’S GUIDE SHOWING THE PUBLIC BULDINGS, PLACES OF AMUSEMENT & ITS’ ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES. New York: [G. H. Bartlett?], 1871.
Three-stone lithograph, 21 ½”h x 31”w at neat line plus title and margins. Folded and tipped into pocket folder bound in blue cloth with title in gilt. 15pp business directory tipped inside front board. A hint of toning along the folds (MUCH exaggerated by the image) and a few mended fold separations, but very good or better.
$3,500.00
In stock
A fun, decorative and very rare 1871 map of Boston representing a sort of hybrid between the pictorial map and bird’s-eye view genres.
The map depicts the Shawmut Peninsula, Back Bay, the South End, and slivers of East Cambridge, Charlestown, and East Boston, along with the street plan, rail lines, public parks, and complex of wharves along the harbor. But the real treat is the pictorial rendering of over 50 major buildings, a mix of businesses, theaters, hospitals, museums, colleges, rail depots, and of course the State House and Bunker Hill monument. One interesting feature is the Back Bay, where the landfill process was still very much a work in progress and no structures are shown west of Clarendon Street.
This example of the map is printed in black, blue, and yellow. There are also one-stone and two-stone variants,[1] the latter using blue for bodies of water. The map is tipped into a blue cloth pocket folder, with a 15-page business directory tipped inside the front board. OCLC makes no mention of the directory, which may have been issued with only a few copies.
George Hartnell Bartlett (1838-1923)
A native of Surrey, Bartlett’s early career is unclear. At some point he must have trained as a lithographer, because in the mid-1860s he is credited as such on an “Illustrated map of London or stranger’s guide to the public buildings, theatres, music halls, & all places of interest”, published in London by Smith & Son. In 1866 he moved his family to New York City but by 1871 had moved on to Boston. For the rest of his life, I’ll quote from his 1923 obituary in The Boston Globe:
“George H. Bartlett, principal emeritus of the Normal Art School on Exeter st, died at his home, 216 Pleasant st, Arlington, today in his 84th year. Mr Bartlett was born in England, studied at South Kensington, and came to Boston in the early [18]70s, when the first great impulse toward art education took shape in Massachusetts….
“Mr Bartlett became principal of the South Boston Art School in 1871-2 and became master of the Boston evening freehand drawinf[sic] classes at the same time. He became instructor in the State Normal Art School in 1873, under Walter Smith, and on the death of the latter became principal of the school, a position he held for 30 years.
“For half a century Mr Bartlett has been an important influence in the art life of America and was known to many artists and art teachers here.” (The Boston Globe, March 26, 1923, p. 4)
For some reason I have found no reference to Bartlett’s mapmaking and -publishing activities in the contemporary press. But in addition to the “Illustrated Map of Boston” offered here, dated by bibliographers to 1871, in 1877 he may have been involved in an “Illustrated Map of Paris”. This map has a similar title and format to the Boston and London maps, but bears not his name but that of lithographer “George Warren Bartlett” at 149a Tremont Street. Frankly, I don’t yet know what to make of this. Then in 1893 our Bartlett published “The Public Schools of Massachusetts”, with a pictorial format similar to that of the city maps, and in 1904 the “Public Libraries of Massachusetts”, a somewhat more conventional thematic map.
References
OCLC #36487406 and 1329216108, giving four institutional holdings as of November 2025. OCLC # 55740478 lists a variant, held only by Harvard, which “Differs from other 1871 edition: does not have printers note in lower right corner, has 5 ships instead of 6 ships in lower right harbor, Charlestown and East Cambridge have no buildings other than the Bunker Hill Monument, and has fewer buildings represented in Boston” (Of all these examples, it is not clear which of these are the one-, two-, or three-stone variants.) See also Boston Engineering Dept., List of Maps of Boston, p. 171. The List incorrectly describes the map as published in Boston by Daniel Lawrence & Sons, but this is incorrect: They were the “only manufacturers of pure Medford Rum” and are the last firm listed in the tipped-in business directory.
[1] By “stone” I mean lithographic stone: For the most part, printing lithographs in color required one stone per color.
Inventory ID:
“Bartlett’s Illustrated Map of Boston”, fusing the pictorial map and bird’s-eye view genres
James S. Talbot / G. H. Bartlett Lith. 72 Duane St. N. Y. / Printed by Hatch & Co. N. Y., [on front board:] BARTLETTS’ PICTORIAL MAP OF BOSTON. [on map:] BARTLETT’S ILLUSTRATED MAP OF BOSTON. OR STRANGER’S GUIDE SHOWING THE PUBLIC BULDINGS, PLACES OF AMUSEMENT & ITS’ ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES. New York: [G. H. Bartlett?], 1871.
$3,500.00
In stock
Three-stone lithograph, 21 ½”h x 31”w at neat line plus title and margins. Folded and tipped into pocket folder bound in blue cloth with title in gilt. 15pp business directory tipped inside front board. A hint of toning along the folds (MUCH exaggerated by the image) and a few mended fold separations, but very good or better.
A fun, decorative and very rare 1871 map of Boston representing a sort of hybrid between the pictorial map and bird’s-eye view genres.
The map depicts the Shawmut Peninsula, Back Bay, the South End, and slivers of East Cambridge, Charlestown, and East Boston, along with the street plan, rail lines, public parks, and complex of wharves along the harbor. But the real treat is the pictorial rendering of over 50 major buildings, a mix of businesses, theaters, hospitals, museums, colleges, rail depots, and of course the State House and Bunker Hill monument. One interesting feature is the Back Bay, where the landfill process was still very much a work in progress and no structures are shown west of Clarendon Street.
This example of the map is printed in black, blue, and yellow. There are also one-stone and two-stone variants,[1] the latter using blue for bodies of water. The map is tipped into a blue cloth pocket folder, with a 15-page business directory tipped inside the front board. OCLC makes no mention of the directory, which may have been issued with only a few copies.
George Hartnell Bartlett (1838-1923)
A native of Surrey, Bartlett’s early career is unclear. At some point he must have trained as a lithographer, because in the mid-1860s he is credited as such on an “Illustrated map of London or stranger’s guide to the public buildings, theatres, music halls, & all places of interest”, published in London by Smith & Son. In 1866 he moved his family to New York City but by 1871 had moved on to Boston. For the rest of his life, I’ll quote from his 1923 obituary in The Boston Globe:
“George H. Bartlett, principal emeritus of the Normal Art School on Exeter st, died at his home, 216 Pleasant st, Arlington, today in his 84th year. Mr Bartlett was born in England, studied at South Kensington, and came to Boston in the early [18]70s, when the first great impulse toward art education took shape in Massachusetts….
“Mr Bartlett became principal of the South Boston Art School in 1871-2 and became master of the Boston evening freehand drawinf[sic] classes at the same time. He became instructor in the State Normal Art School in 1873, under Walter Smith, and on the death of the latter became principal of the school, a position he held for 30 years.
“For half a century Mr Bartlett has been an important influence in the art life of America and was known to many artists and art teachers here.” (The Boston Globe, March 26, 1923, p. 4)
For some reason I have found no reference to Bartlett’s mapmaking and -publishing activities in the contemporary press. But in addition to the “Illustrated Map of Boston” offered here, dated by bibliographers to 1871, in 1877 he may have been involved in an “Illustrated Map of Paris”. This map has a similar title and format to the Boston and London maps, but bears not his name but that of lithographer “George Warren Bartlett” at 149a Tremont Street. Frankly, I don’t yet know what to make of this. Then in 1893 our Bartlett published “The Public Schools of Massachusetts”, with a pictorial format similar to that of the city maps, and in 1904 the “Public Libraries of Massachusetts”, a somewhat more conventional thematic map.
References
OCLC #36487406 and 1329216108, giving four institutional holdings as of November 2025. OCLC # 55740478 lists a variant, held only by Harvard, which “Differs from other 1871 edition: does not have printers note in lower right corner, has 5 ships instead of 6 ships in lower right harbor, Charlestown and East Cambridge have no buildings other than the Bunker Hill Monument, and has fewer buildings represented in Boston” (Of all these examples, it is not clear which of these are the one-, two-, or three-stone variants.) See also Boston Engineering Dept., List of Maps of Boston, p. 171. The List incorrectly describes the map as published in Boston by Daniel Lawrence & Sons, but this is incorrect: They were the “only manufacturers of pure Medford Rum” and are the last firm listed in the tipped-in business directory.
[1] By “stone” I mean lithographic stone: For the most part, printing lithographs in color required one stone per color.
Additional information
| year published | 1871 |
|---|
