Boston Rare Maps

Specializing in rare, important and unusual American maps and prints

Recent acquisitions

Willem Blaeu’s landmark “upside-down” map of New England and the mid-Atlantic

A lovely example of a most important map by Willem Blaeu, the 1635 Nova Belgica is a cartographic summation of European settlement and geographic knowledge of New England and the mid-Atlantic in the first quarter of the 17th century. This map is based largely on the seminal 1614 manuscript map by the Dutch trader Adrien […]

Unrecorded two-sheet map of the Americas, issued by Robert Sayer after the French and Indian War

An exciting discovery, being an entirely unrecorded, highly-decorative, two-sheet map of the Americas, published by Robert Sayer after the end of the French and Indian War. For the most part, the geography of Sayer’s is clearly derived from the work of Herman Moll, and is very much of the period of the 1720s (Note, for […]

Osgood Carleton’s 1798 Accurate Map of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

A great rarity, this seminal map by Osgood Carleton is by far the best 18th-century map of Massachusetts and one of the earliest officially-sponsored maps of an American state. With extensive expert restoration and priced accordingly, but all-but unobtainable in any condition. The map’s large scale of six miles to the inch gave mapmaker Osgood […]

19th-century survey dividing Nantucket common lands at North Pasture

An 1821 survey recording the division of common lands at the North Pasture a couple of miles east of the town of Nantucket, a process as controversial as it was important. Though this manuscript has obviously had a hard life, the document is a rare survival: While Nantucket institutions hold substantial cartographic archives related to […]

One of the earliest Texas maps of the Republic era

The first Republic-era edition (and second overall) of this important map of Texas, published in May 1836 just weeks after it declared its independence from Mexico. The map clearly reflects current events by depicting the Republic as a distinct political entity, much shaped by the land grants to and improvements made by its American settlers. In the […]

An all-but unknown map of the Black Hills, published during the Gold Rush

An extremely rare 1877 map of the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, published during the Gold Rush and either during or just after the Great Sioux War Background Until 1877 the Dakota Territory portion of the Black Hills lay within the bounds of the Great Sioux Reservation (Established by the second Fort Laramie […]

Spectacular view of the Statue of Liberty by Currier & Ives

A spectacular Currier & Ives view of the Statue of Liberty, issued to commemorate its unveiling in October 1886. The view depicts the statue and Bedloe’s (now Liberty) Island as seen from the southwest, with lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge in the far background. The low angle, the strategic placement of tiny human figures […]

The Unique Map of California

A very scarce map of California, combining attractive color, imagery, thematic and persuasive elements to yield a decorative and promotional tour de force. This remarkable promotional map depicts each California county, along with its acreage, primary agricultural products and extractive industries. Superimposed on the map are no fewer than 20 pictorial vignettes emphasize both the […]

Mapping the battleground states of the 1888 presidential election

A fascinating set of thematic maps previewing the battleground states in the 1888 presidential election, which pitted incumbent Grover Cleveland, a New York Democrat, against Indiana Republican Benjamin Harrison. The maps were published as a supplement to the Oct. 6, 1888 Harper’s Weekly, accompanying an article of the same title by journalist and statistician T. […]

Rare 1910 map of the United States touting the coverage of phone lines owned or controlled by AT&T

A rare 1910 thematic map of AT&T’s Bell Telephone System, produced at a time when “Ma Bell” had a near-stranglehold on the nation’s long-distance and local phone service. The map depicts the United States, southern Canada, and northern Mexico, including state and provincial boundaries and the courses of major river systems. Heavy blue lines indicate […]

A nearly-complete run of Southwest Pacific Newsmaps, 1944-1945, with particular emphasis on the recapture of the Philippines

A nearly complete run of Southwest Pacific Newsmaps, documenting the war in the Southwest Pacific from January 1944 through April 1945. Highly informative, visually appealing, and very, very rare. During the Second World War the United States War Department published hundreds of weekly Newsmaps, for distribution to military installations, domestic industry and political leaders. These […]

A foundation map of the 20th-century petroleum industry

The scarce 1958 first edition of this landmark oil map of Saudi Arabia, the product of a remarkable partnership between the Saudi and American governments, Saudi Aramco, and the U.S. Geological Survey. This is one of the most influential oil maps ever produced, being the first accurate and comprehensive general oil map of the entire […]

Justus Danckerts’ map of the New Netherlands

Justus Danckerts’ take on the iconic 17th-century map of the New Netherlands, New England, Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland and Virginia. The so-called “Jansson-Visscher” series of maps began with Johannes Jansson’s 1651 Belgii Novi, which was published in Amsterdam and patriotically depicted a sprawling New Netherlands with a tiny New England confined east of the […]

Gustavus Weissenborn’s American Engineering, in parts as issued and with spectacular lithographs

Eight parts (of 26) of a monumental work of superb lithographs celebrating American engineering, most unusual for being unbound and with the original pictorial wraps intact. Civil engineer and lithographer Gustavus Weissenborn first issued this ambitious series of lithographs in parts, beginning in 1854, when it was advertised in May with “parts one and two […]

Monumental map of metropolitan New York by Henry F. Walling, in stellar condition

A spectacular, information-rich, and very scarce 1860 map of the New York metropolitan area by Henry Frances Walling, one of the giants of 19th-century American mapmaking. The map depicts a roughly 14-mile-square area centered on New York City Hall in Lower Manhattan. At the time New York City itself was confined to Manhattan Island, with […]

Spectacular Pony Express promotional broadside

A very large and vivid xylographic Pony Express promotional broadside, its size and visual impact unmatched by any other Pony Express image with which we are acquainted. Only the second example known. The broadside features a proud upright rider, his bearing and posture remarkably calm considering that the horse under him is in full gallop. […]

Striking panoramic View of Mount Rainier National Park by John Renshawe

A striking bird’s-eye view of Mount Rainier National Park, prepared by John H. Renshawe from topographic sheets of the United States Geological Survey (USGS). After years of lobbying by John Muir, the Sierra Club, the National Geographic Society an other groups, in 1899 Congress established Mount Rainier as the United States’ fifth national park. The […]

Rare first edition of Humbead’s Revised Map of the World (1968)

A justly-iconic product of the late-60s, Humbead’s Revised Map distills the world to its essentials, or at least to the places and people most “top of mind” for the American counterculture. The map depicts the world as consolidated in a single, psychedelic Pangaea comprising Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, New York City and Cambridge, with […]