Boston Rare Maps

Specializing in antique American maps & prints

Recent acquisitions

Wildly-inventive cartoon attacking corruption during the Election of 1872

A rare and astonishingly complex cartoon attacking American political corruption during the Election of 1872. No names are named, but the villainous “Big Politician” is surely a stand in for Boss Tweed, the Grant Administration, or more likely both. This is one of three or four cartoons produced in 1872 by Thomas Albert Davies, a […]

Fascinating political map on a tobacco premium

A wonderful and extremely rare political map of the United States issued as a tobacco premium by a Louisville, Kentucky tobacco firm. This piece was produced as a two-sided “premium” to promote Old Honesty Plug Tobacco, a brand produced by the Finzer Brothers of Louisville, Kentucky. The Finzer brothers were Swiss émigrés who in 1866 established […]

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 (not included here) by journalist […]

A marvelous ” National Historical Chart “

Published in 1890, the National Historical Chart is a marvelous, informative and extremely rare mechanical timeline of United States history, intended for use in schools. A masterpiece of economical graphic design, this chart tells the story of American history chronologically from the American Revolution to the administration of President Benjamin Harrison. It is divided into […]

Strobridge maps the Election of 1904

A most appealing and unrecorded poster mapping the results of the presidential election of 1904 and the electors allocated to each state for the upcoming 1908 election. The poster features a large thematic map of the United States, colored to differentiate states that went for incumbent Republican President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 (blue) from those […]

Votes for Women a Success

A clever handbill arguing for the expansion of voting rights for women in the United States, using a clever persuasive map to highlight the expansion of suffrage across the states. By 1900 only four states (beginning with Wyoming in 1869) had granted women the vote, and the suffrage effort was flagging. But a new generation […]

The Lincoln-Lee Legion pushes National Prohibition

A small polemical piece issued in 1916 by the Lincoln-Lee Legion, using persuasive cartography to promote National Prohibition. America in its early years was awash in alcohol. Indeed, when one reads some of the statistics and anecdotes, it is difficult not to believe that the Pilgrims had a more or less continuous buzz on, Cotton […]

Crunching electoral data to re-elect Herbert Hoover

An extremely rare broadside by two fans of Herbert Hoover, analyzing the results of the 1928 presidential election and revealing some of the less appealing elements of the politics of Prohibition. The 1928 election was fought between Democrat Al Smith, Governor of New York, and Republican Herbert Hoover, an engineer, businessman and Secretary of Commerce […]

An interesting attempt at the visualization of political data from the Election of 1948

A rare, innovative and visually striking political chart produced before the United States presidential election of 1948, summarizing the results of election cycles between 1928 and 1946. Given the enormous size and complexity of our national government, national elections present a significant data-visualization challenge. Early efforts focused solely on presidential elections, providing results on a […]

1964 Barry Goldwater campaign handbill attacking the Democrats as soft on Communism

An unrecorded 1964 handbill issued by the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign, using a persuasive map to reinforce its argument that Democrats are soft on Communism. The election of 1964 pitted incumbent Democrat Lyndon Johnson against Republican Barry Goldwater, who ran on a deeply conservative small-government, low-tax, anti-Communism platform. Johnson, by contrast, leaned heavily on the […]

1982 David Horsey map of The World According to Ronald Reagan

An entertaining 1982 persuasive map by David Horsey offering a liberal caricature of Ronald Reagan’s Cold Warrior world view. The map uses a pictorial style to depict the United States and Soviet Union wildly out of scale with the rest of the world. Reagan in full gunfighter regalia stands astride a hypertrophied California, while Leonid […]

1987 map of The World According to Ronald Reagan

An entertaining 1987 persuasive map offering a liberal caricature of the world view of President Ronald Reagan. The map uses a pictorial style to depict the United States and Soviet Union wildly out of scale with the rest of the world. Reagan in full gunfighter regalia stands astride a hypertrophied California, while a dour Gorbachev, […]

A most interesting map of New York and New England by Homann

A most decorative and geographically intriguing map of New England, issued by Nuremburg mapmaker Johann Baptist Homann in or around 1730. Propelled by economic hardship, religious persecution and repeated warfare, in the late 17th century waves of German settlers began the first of many waves of immigration to America. Through the end of the 18th […]

William Chewitt map of Upper Canada … the best of the region to date

The first edition of this rare and important case map of the Province of Upper Canada, drawn by surveyor William Chewitt and published while region was the primary theatre of war on land between the United States and Great Britain. This map depicts Upper Canada and adjacent parts of Lower Canada and the United States, […]

Fascinating, yet under-appreciated, map of the United States by Ephraim Gilman

A fascinating map of the United States prepared in late 1848 to accompany President James Polk’s final annual message to Congress. The map was drawn on short notice by Ephraim Gilman, at the time the Principal Draftsman of the General Land Office. Gilman’s map depicts the United States as a trans-continental power, a status achieved […]

Monumental 1874 map of Texas by Anton Roessler

Anton Roessler’s 1874 map is one of the great large-format 19th-century depictions of Texas, being among other things the only published map to preserve the findings of Shumard’s Antebellum agricultural and geological survey. In scale, detail and content it represents a giant leap forward from Ferdinand Roemer’s 1849 geological map, and for its depiction of […]

Three rare 1888 broadsides with views of Colorado Springs

An impressive and very rare set of broadsides issued in 1888 by the Colorado Springs Weekly Gazette, offering no fewer than 55 pictorial views of landmarks in and around the booming city. Colorado Springs began its history as the Fountain Colony, established in 1871 by Civil War hero General William Jackson Palmer along Fountain Creek […]

Spectacular chromolithographic advert for International Poultry Food

A charming chromolithographic poster promoting the virtues of International Poultry Food, an avian superfood that “makes chicks grow rapidly and prevents disease” and is “the greatest known egg producer.” The image features a content and robust hen surrounded by dozens of healthy-looking chicks and a cheerfully-packaged box of the product. International Poultry Food was a […]

Colossal 1906 map of Cuba produced for the Army of Cuban Pacification

A colossal six-sheet map of Cuba, more than 15 feet wide if joined, issued in 1906 for use by the so-called Army of Cuban Pacification in the re-occupation of the island ordered by President Roosevelt. Extremely rare, with only four institutional examples located, and no record of having appeared on the antiquarian market. The map […]

Mammoth 1909 plan for the Estates of Long Beach, masterminded by real estate magnate William H. Reynolds

A most attractive and very rare 1909 promotional plan revealing real estate magnate William H. Reynolds’ typically grandiose vision for the future city of Long Beach, New York. Born poor in 1868, at 18 Reynolds went into business as a builder and real estate broker, “having accumulated capital of $200 by obtaining a 2 per […]

A Makimono featuring a young artist’s idiosyncratic rendering of a round-the-world voyage

A rare makimono featuring a charming graphic rendering of a 1911-12 trip around the world, probably by a student at Mr. Sargent’s Travel School for Boys. The travelogue, rendered in the style of a Japanese makimono, or folding hand scroll, uses a continuous line-drawn landscape with captions including dates, modes of transport, and locations. The […]

Panoramic View of Yellowstone National Park

A spectacular bird’s-eye view of Yellowstone National Park, prepared by John H. Renshawe (1852-1934) from topographic sheets of the United States Geological Survey. Established in 1872 on more than 2.2 million acres in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park was the first of its kind in the United States and is thought by many […]

Second World War anti-malaria map by Theodore Geisel!

A clever and striking persuasive map produced by Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) for the American military’s anti-malaria campaign during the Second World War. The Japanese conquest of Indonesia and the Philippines in early 1942 cut the Allies off from their sources of the malaria drug quinine. The results were nearly catastrophic, so much so that in […]

Timothy Edward Downs maps the World Wide Web

A rare and striking map of the World Wide Web capturing the excitement of the earliest days of the new technology. Designed by legendary technical artist Timothy Edward Downs as a bonus for purchasers of PC Computing magazine. PC Computing and Timothy Edward Downs Back in the early nineties PC Magazine, PC World and PC […]