Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in antique American maps & prints
A fine example of the very rare second state of J. B. Eliot’s map of the United States, with additional annotations in a contemporary hand. The first state of the map, issued in 1778, is believed to be the earliest printed map to name the “United States.” Eliot’s attractive map depicts the colonies from southern […]
A lovely old-color example of one of the earliest maps to name the United States, indicate its borders per the Treaty of Paris, and depict the Stars and Stripes. Per the subtitle, Brion de la Tour compiled the map from various English maps and other sources, as well as the boundaries set by the Treaty […]
An early and important guide to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers by Zadock Cramer, including no fewer than 28 maps. “[O]ne of the most useful guide-books ever published and the detailed descriptions, revised from time to time, make it especially useful to the historical student today.” (Solon Buck, Travel and Description 1765-1865, p. 9) This […]
Basil Hall (1788-1844) was a British naval officer, traveler and writer. After retiring from the Navy and marrying, he traveled in the United States from 1827-8. His objective “was to see things with my own eyes, in order to ascertain, by personal inspection, how far the sentiments prevalent in England with respect to that country […]
![Engraved by G[eorge] W. Boynton / [Printed by Joseph Willard Tuttle], A MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, FROM THE LATEST SURVEYS. WITH THE HEIGHT OF MOUNTAINS And length of the PRINCIPAL RIVERS. PATENT. Boston: [Tremont Print Company? Joseph Willard Tuttle?], 1841.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/BRM3270-Tuttle_Boynton-United-States-textile-1841-150x150.jpg)
A rare and decorative 1841 handkerchief map of the United States, one of only four early American cartographic textiles identified in Threads of History. Tuttle’s map depicts the United States to 24 degrees west of Washington, including parts of the territory just west of the Missouri River and of the Republic of Texas. The cartographic prototype […]
A great rarity of thematic mapmaking: a Charles Joseph Minard “flow map” tracking the impact of the American Civil War on the global cotton trade. Minard was one of the great 19th-century innovators in what Edward Tufte has called the “visual display of quantitative information.” Over the course of a quarter century he produced dozens of […]
An early and spectacular example of American pictorial mapping, Rambles through Our Country is a simple educational game requiring players to complete a “grand tour” of the United States. The game is played on a board featuring a spectacular chromolithographic map of the United States. The map bears 200 numbered stations beginning with Hartford—where the […]
A splendid cartographic cartoon lampooning the flood of Republican office seekers after the 1888 election of Benjamin Harrison to the Presidency. The image has President-elect Benjamin Harrison emerging from a skylight in the roof of his home and using a telescope to look out over the dozens of aspirants scattered about the country (While Harrison’s […]
An unusual and mildly anti-Semitic cartographic cartoon from 1912 taking aim at the power of the Guggenheim Family and their purported corrupt dealings in Alaska. The cartoon depicts the United States in outline, towered over by eight of its industrial titans. East of the Mississippi are Morgan, Rockefeller and Carnegie, glaring across the river at […]