Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in antique American maps & prints
![[Untitled hand fan with scenes celebrating La Salle’s expedition and attempted settlement in Texas, including a map of the area between the Trinity and Colorado Rivers.] England or France, ca. 1718-1750.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/BRM4056-Texas_LaSalle-hand-fan_recto_lowres-scaled-e1637030851290-150x150.jpg)
A remarkably lovely 18th-century hand fan bearing many illustrations and a curious map of Texas, all celebrating the final, fateful expedition of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643 – 1687). A stylized chronology of La Salle’s final expedition The front of the fan features a dramatic scene that can be divided into three chronologically […]
![W[illiam] H. Emory, 1st Lieut. T[opographical] E[ngineers] / W. J. Stone Sc., MAP OF TEXAS AND THE COUNTRIES ADJACENT Compiled in the Bureau of the Corps of Topographical Engineers from the best Authorities FOR THE STATE DEPARTMENT, Under the direction of Colonel J.J. Abert Chief of the Corps, by W.H. Emory, 1st Lieut. T. E. WAR DEPARTMENT 1844., Washington, D.C., 1844.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BRM5003-Emory-Texas-1844_lowres-150x150.jpg)
Fine example of William H. Emory’s important map of the Republic of Texas and the adjacent regions, published in 1844 at the height of the controversy over annexation. During the Congressional debates on the annexation of Texas, one of the central questions was the location of its boundaries with neighboring states and with Mexico. Colonel […]
![MAP OF MEXICO, INCLUDING YUCATAN & UPPER CALIFORNIA… [on sheet with:] George Stealey, Civil Engineer, MAP of the PRINCIPAL ROADS from VERA CRUZ and ALVARADO to the CITY of MEXICO… Philadelphia: S. Augustus Mitchell, 1847.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BRM4100-Mitchell-Mexico-1847_lowres-scaled-e1646348439888-150x150.jpg)
Fine example of the Samuel Augustus Mitchell’s impressive 1847 map of Mexico and the Southwest, published to take advantage of public interest in the ongoing war between that country and the United States. The Mexican-American War was catalyzed by the United States’ annexation of Texas in 1845 and an ongoing dispute over whether the new […]
The first edition of a remarkable, separately-issued military map of Texas and the eastern part of New Mexico. This is one of several regional maps of the Western United States prepared by the Bureau of Topographical Engineers prior to the Civil War. They were not published per se but rather printed in very small numbers […]
An interesting and most decorative survey of lands in Lamar County, Texas by the hand of the patriarch of a family, in which land bequests to various family members are laid out and precisely described. Best as I can glean from census records, John Onstott (1802-1874) of North Carolina and Mary Polly Wood (1806-1879) of South […]
A very rare 1898 promotional map of Jefferson County, Texas. Published by Pattillo Higgins, the Father of Texas Oil, a few short years before the gusher at Spindletop transformed the global oil industry. Background Higgins (1863-1955) was born in Sabine Pass, Texas but spent most of his life in nearby Beaumont. His unpromising early years were marked among other things […]
A colossal and unrecorded wall map of Dallas Texas, issued at a seminal moment in the development of the modern city. Dallas was one of the great American boom towns of the late 19th century, developing rapidly from a small frontier outpost into Texas’ most dynamic city. This map was issued in 1911, shortly after […]
![N[icholas] L[loyd] Taliaferro and F[rank] S[amuel] Hudson, Geologic Map of the Marathon Basin. Field notes in Sept. and Oct. 1919.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/BRM3464-Taliaferro_Hudson-Marathon-Basin-1919_lowres-scaled-e1581520669352-150x150.jpg)
A finely-rendered geological map of the Marathon Basin in Brewster County, Texas, from the early years of West Texas oil exploration. Oil exploration in West Texas was at a feverish pitch during the years 1919-21, particularly in the Permian Basin and the adjoining Marathon Basin. Exploratory drilling in both areas began in 1920, but with […]