Boston Rare Maps

Specializing in antique American maps & prints

Recent acquisitions

Richard Williams’ fine plan of the siege of Boston

One of the finest contemporary plan of the 1775-76 siege of Boston, the opening campaign of the American Revolution, drawn by Richard Williams, a British officer on the spot, and published in London by Andrew Dury. The map is featured on the cover of Krieger and Cobb’s Mapping Boston, while Nebenzahl’s Atlas of the American […]

Important and richly-detailed map of Essequibo and Demerara

Highly detailed map of the Dutch colonies of Essequibo and Demerara by Friedrich von Bouchenroeder, an officer in the Dutch Army and would-be settler Essequibo and Demerara were settled by the Dutch in about 1616 and remained in Dutch hands into the eighteenth century, when the two colonies were captured by the British in 1781. […]

Engraved copper printing plate by Tanner, Vallance and Kearney

A rare engraved copper printing plate by the important Philadelphia partnership of Tanner, Vallance and Kearney, featuring portraits of six American generals from the War of 1812 facing portraits of six of Napoleon’s marshals. The plate bears two separate images engraved in line and stipple, each signed by Tanner, Vallance and Kearney and separated by […]

A striking 1861 historical chart of the United States, with a pro-Union message

A rare and striking chart of the historical development of the United States, celebrating the Union at the outset of the Civil War. The chart’s focal point is a mammoth tree of indeterminate species, probably printed from a wood- or metalcut in a dark, rich green. Metaphorically, the tree does double duty. On the one […]

Early wine map of the Gironde

An early and wonderfully detailed road and wine map of the Department of the Gironde, in the heart of the Bordeaux wine region and source of some of the world’s great reds. The base map includes the boundaries of arrondisements and cantons, with cities and towns indicated by symbols indicating their political status, the network […]

Full-year run of a leading Temperance journal … with maps!

A nearly-complete 1898 run of one of America’s “leading temperance journals” (Mott), including maps highlighting consumption in and around leading universities. Funk & Wagnalls published a weekly Temperance journal from 1884 to 1906, though under various titles and in a range of formats: For 1898 the first 50 issues were the eight-page broadsheet New York […]

Mormon theological geography… on a nine-foot-high banner!

Perhaps the only known example of this astonishing nine-foot-tall banner bearing a historical map of the Americas, printed on cloth and reflecting an early attempt at a geographical interpretation of the Book of Mormon. The map was an official production of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) in Independence, Missouri. […]

Octopus map reflecting French anti-Semitism at the turn of the 20th century

A spectacular albeit noxious French persuasive map using the octopus motif to promote anti-Semitism and anti-Freemasonry. As in other European nations, French anti-Semitism has a long history, most famously manifesting itself in the Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s and collaboration with Nazi deportation of Jews during the Second World War. In the public mind, Jews were […]

Beautifully illustrated notebook on the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri

A book of notes on the works of Dante Alighieri by an un-named student, highlighted by four delightful diagrams illustrating the Divine Comedy. The notebook begin with a page on Dante’s Vita Nuova, a work of courtly love poetry, followed by two pages on Il Convito (aka, Il Convivio). This is followed by a four-page […]

Claude Grahame-White triumphs at the 1910 Harvard Boston Aero Meet

A delightful hand-drawn cartoon celebrating Claude Grahame-White’s round-trip flight to Boston Light at the 1910 Harvard-Boston Aero Meet. Background The Harvard Boston Aero Meet, jointly organized by the Aero Club of New England and the Harvard Aeronautical Society, took place between September 3rd and 13th, 1910. Twenty-two aviators from around the world descended on Harvard […]

“SECRET” Situation Map of Iwo Jima prepared for the American invasion

A rare “Secret” situation map of Iwo Jima prepared in anticipation of the February 19, 1945 U.S. invasion of the island. The map shows the landing zones on the southeastern and southwestern beaches of the island, and, most importantly, the Japanese defensive installations throughout the island in minute detail… at least as they were known […]

SCAM : The Game of International Dope Smuggling

An amazing artifact from the year Nixon declared war on drugs. In Scam: The Game of International Dope Smuggling, players drop out, start dealing and try to be the first to make $1,000,000. I am hopelessly ill-qualified to catalog this item—too straightlaced, and the wrong sort of writer to do justice to its exuberant, irreverent […]

Rare atlas of raised relief maps for use by the visually impaired

A monumental and very rare world atlas, and a landmark in the printing of raised relief maps for use by the visually impaired. Historical background The printing of raised relief maps for use by the visually impaired had been pioneered in the 1830s; here in America the best known are the maps and atlases produced […]

The Porcineograph: One nation, under pork

The very rare first edition of the Porcineograph, a triumph of the imagination with a place on my personal “top ten” list. The map unites in one image considerable wit, stunning graphic design, hygienic hog farming, and post-Civil War reconciliation between the Union and Confederacy. The central map depicts the United States as a […]

Amazing manuscript map promoting Tarryall Power Company ventures in Colorado

A monumental hand-drawn map of Central Colorado, touting the state’s economic wealth in order to promote the projects of the Tarryall Power Company. The map depicts a 100-mile radius centered on the area just south of Denver at a scale of 5 miles to the inch. The map illustrates the hydrology of the region, along […]

Early 19th-century American manuscript map of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Stream

A most unusual manuscript map of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Stream, based on a map in Bowditch’s New American Practical Navigator but with interesting additions. The map depicts the East Coast of North America, the Caribbean, Central America, the West Coast of Africa, the coasts of northern Spain and France, and of course the […]

Superb map of the Boston area by John G. Hales

A most important 1819 map of the Greater Boston area by John G. Hales. Though little known today, Hales deserves a place among the first rank of early American surveyors and map makers. Hales’ wonderful map depicts the region encompassing Beverly to the northeast, Scituate to the southeast, and Natick, East Sudbury &c. to the […]