A scarce and striking map celebrating the recent completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, with spectacular original hand coloring and a panoramic view at top titled “From the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.”

The map depicts the United States in full as well as southern Canada, much of Mexico, and the Greater Antilles, a not-so-subtle nod at American visions of empire. It shows major cities, towns, forts, waterways; geographic features, with elevations indicating by hachuring; and the ranges of dozens of native American peoples. Columns at left and right serve up state-by-state population statistics from the 1870 census. An inset of Central America is found at bottom left. Relief is indicated using hachures; see for example the lovely representation of the West Indies.

Numerous railroad routes traverse the country, including not only the recently-completed Union and Central Pacific Railroads, but also the planned Northern Pacific Railroad (completed 1883) and the Southern Pacific network (its first connection with California also completed 1883). At lower left a fun “Time and Distance Table between Washington and the Principal Places in North and Central America” suggests the central role played by railroads in the standardization of time in the United States, which would take place a decade after publication of this map, at the General Time Convention of October 1883.

Adorning the upper reaches of the map is an inset panoramic view of the country “from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean”, which makes ingenious use of scale to depict the exciting new possibility of continuous rail travel from New York City to San Francisco.

The exuberant calligraphy of the title; the inset panoramic view of the country “from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean”; and above all the full wash color give the map spectacular decorative impact.

Published in 1871, but it reflects the Post-Civil War confidence that the United States had entered a new era of national integration. The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the rapidly expanding web of regional lines shown here, embodied a federal vision of a continent linked by continuous circulation of people, goods, and information. By rendering the nation perfused by a single, connected rail network, the map gives cartographic expression to the restoration of the Union and to the belief that modern infrastructure would secure the cohesion the Civil War had tested.

This example of the map has a number of tiny ink and pencil annotations in Texas, primarily additional place names, population figures, and distances along rail routes. One addition in ink may indicate a proposed rail line from San Antonio to San Saba; others in pencil may relate in some way to land ownership.

Haasis & Lubrecht (fl.1865-ca.1888)
Founded in New York City in 1865, Haasis & Lubrecht was a partnership of Julius Ferdinand Daniel Haasis (1827–1866) and Karl (“Charles”) Theobold Lubrecht (1840–1926), both German immigrants. The partnership appears to have been born as much of circumstance as of ambition: Haasis’s later years were marked by failing health, and the firm’s earliest notices coincide with the period when he is described, at death, as having endured a “long and painful illness.”

Haasis was born at Böblingen, in Württemberg, on February 4, 1827, and arrived in New York on October 20, 1849. By the mid-1850s he was working in the trade as a map colorist, including a brief partnership with W. W. Powell as “Powell & Haasis” (1856–57), followed by solo work in 1858. From about 1860 he is found giving his occupation simply as “maps,” from the address associated with the Colton establishment—suggesting close proximity, whether as employee, contractor, or allied specialist within the city’s mapmaking ecosystem.

Lubrecht came to the United States in 1860 and by 1864 was advertising a “map establishment” at 212 Broadway, at Fulton Street. The firm name “Haasis & Lubrecht” is first traced in advertisements in October 1865, plausibly reflecting a consolidation of the two men’s operations as Haasis’s illness progressed. In his will, dated January 26, 1866, Haasis appointed his wife Fanny sole executrix and transferred his interest in the business to her, while expressly directing that the firm name should continue: “it is my purpose and desire that the firm name of Haasis & Lubrecht shall continue to be used as a firm name; and I shall rely upon the honor and integrity of my friend Charles H. Lubrecht… to protect and save my wife from all liability and loss growing out of said business.” The “friend” in question was also family: Lubrecht was Haasis’s nephew, his mother (Mathilda Fredericke Haasis, 1816–1850) being Julius’s elder sister.

The “Haasis & Lubrecht” name endured into the 1880s, the firm promoting its output through frequent advertisements and regularly seeking commission agents and salesmen. But in 1885 Lubrecht is found trading under his own name, consistent with a winding-up of the business as Haasis’s children reached adulthood and the need for continuing arrangements on behalf of the estate diminished.

References
OCLC #55518930 et al (this edition). Rumsey #3822. Modelski, Railroad Maps, does not record this edition but does not editions of 1872 (#53) and 1874 (#55).