Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in rare, important and unusual American maps and prints
![Ricker & Murphy, Del., 162 and 164 S. Clark St. Chicago / Gazette Print, Colorado Springs, ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT—COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE. JANUARY 1, 1888. [:] VIEWS OF COLORADO SPRINGS, MANITOU SPRINGS AND COLORADO CITY. Colorado Springs, Jan. 1, 1888.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/BRM3627-Views-of-Colorado-Springs_composite-150x150.jpg)
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 […]
![Anonymous, VIOLENT STORM. Boston, October 15, 1804. Boston, [late October] 1804.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BRM2131-Violent-Storm-in-Boston-1804-2-scaled-e1585253629539-150x150.jpg)
An unrecorded variant of an extremely rare broadside recounting the remarkable snow hurricane of 1804. The 1804 storm raged in Boston from Tuesday, October 9-Thursday, October 11, and observers were shocked by both its high winds and early-season snow: “The 1804 Snow hurricane was the first tropical cyclone in recorded history known to produce snowfall. An […]
![The Confession and DYING WORDS of SAMUEL FROST, Who is to be Executed this Day, October 31, 1793, for the Horrid Crime of MURDER. Worcester: Printed and sold at Mr. Thomas’s Printingoffice[sic], Oct. 31, 1793.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/BRM4063-Confessions-Samuel-Frost-1793_lowres-scaled-e1646171869753-150x150.jpg)
A very rare illustrated broadside issued on the occasion of the execution of Samuel Frost for murder on October 31, 1793. Published in Worcester, Massachusetts by Isaiah Thomas, one of the leading printers of the Revolutionary and early Republican eras and the founder of the American Antiquarian Society. The broadside is large and striking, nearly […]
![PONY EXPRESS. No place, no date [but 1860-61].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/BRM4425-Pony-Express-1861_lowres-150x150.jpg)
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. […]
![[George B. Cheever] / Miles St. John [engraver] / Stereotyped by J.S. Redfield, DEACON GILES’ DISTILLERY. New York: [George Cheever], [ca. 1835].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BRM4473-Deacon-Giles-Distillery_lowres--150x150.jpg)
Likely a unique variant of a fantastic temperance broadside that led to the author’s imprisonment for libel. According to American National Biography, “[George B.] Cheever joined the temperance reform movement in 1833; two years later he attained national prominence with his enormously popular temperance tract, Enquire at Amos Giles’ Distillery. The essay, cast in the […]
![[Anonymous], A Front VIEW of YALE-COLLEGE, and the COLLEGE CHAPEL, NEW HAVEN. [:] A compendious History of Yale-College, and a general Account of the Course of Studies pursued by the Students. New Haven: Daniel Bowen, [1786].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/BRM4324-Bowen-Yale-College-1786_lowres-150x150.jpg)
An appealing, informative and extremely rare woodcut view of Yale, one of the earliest extant views of the institution. With provenance to one of America’s greatest collectors and one of its greatest dealers of the 20th century. The woodcut is a low-level architectural profile taken from a vantage point on New Haven Green and looks […]
![THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF ART, SCIENCE AND MECHANICS. New York: Munn & Company, [late 1847/early 1848].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/BRM4428-Scientific-American-broadside-ca-1848_lowres-150x150.jpg)
Only the second known example of this 1848 broadside prospectus for Rufus Porter’s Scientific American magazine, still in print today and thus the oldest continuously-published magazine in the United States. Scientific American was founded in 1845 by painter, inventor and some-time publisher Rufus Porter, the first of its four-page, weekly issues appearing on August 28 […]
![Old Colony Railroad broadside, "OAK BLUFFS VINEYARD HIGHLANDS, KATAMA, COTTAGE CITY MARTHA’S VINEYARD NANTUCKET. [Boston, ca. 1876-1892?]"](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/BRM3666-Oak-Bluffs-Vineyard-Highlands-etc_lowres-150x150.jpg)
A spectacular and previously-unknown late 19th-century broadside touting Old Colony Railroad and Old Colony Steamship Company service to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The Old Colony Railroad is not mentioned on this broadside, but the content points directly to that firm, as it dominated transportation in southeastern Massachusetts for much of the 19th century. Established in […]
A rare and surprisingly appealing broadside interest table printed by McAlpine and Fleeming in pre-Revolutionary Boston. A close examination reveals that the broadside features in fact three tables in one, each enabling the user to calculate simple interest down to the nearest farthing. The table at left calculates the interest on loans up to £1000 […]
![[ Profanity ] Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In the Year of our LORD, one thousand seven hundred and ninety eight. An Act to prevent profane Cursing and Swearing. [Boston: Young & Minns, 1798 (imprint supplied by Evans).]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/BRM3638-Cursing-and-Swearing-1798_lowres-scaled-e1603817570507-150x150.jpg)
A scarce 1798 Massachusetts broadside transmitting a new law outlawing profanity and specifying procedures for prosecution and fines to be levied upon conviction. Section I of the Act specifies progressively larger fines to be levied upon repeated instances of profanity, “one moiety of the several forfeitures, aforesaid, to be to the use of the poor […]