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 […]
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 […]
Rare political broadside, setting forth the Democratic Party Platform of 1884 and arguing that the “Public Domain Has Been Squandered” by Federal land grants to the railroads. The broadside was published by the Democratic Party during the 1884 presidential race between Grover Cleveland and James Blaine. The map shows vast swaths of territory from the […]
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 […]