1830s Historical Maps.

[JesseCuster]

I wasn't sure where to post this, but I thought that some members might be interested in items like this of historical significance.

I have an uncle who has a collection of all sorts of fascinating historical oddities. He used to own and live in an Irish stately home from which he extracted some interesting historical documents, books, maps, etc.

One such set was a set of 160 maps from the 1830s that he loaned to me and my dad to catalogue, scan, photograph, etc. because he is interested in knowing if it has any historical significance and is worth selling or donating.

The maps range from street maps of European and American cities from the 1830s, to maps of the American Wild West at the same time, to maps that show undiscovered Africa in the 1830s, to detailed maps of various sections of Europe, etc. Fascinating stuff. Some of the maps are detailed with very beautiful etchings of local landmarks or landscapes. The SDUK society that produced the maps did a very good job of producing some very beautiful prints.

Here's a set of examples from some of the 1830s street maps along with pics of the entire maps from other cities.

Detail from scans:

Antwerp:

Naples:

Paris:

Photos of less detail but entire maps:

New York:

London:

That's just from the street-map set. There's much more like country maps, maps of ancient empires like Egypt and Persia, world maps, continent maps, etc. I've no idea if anyone here is interesting in seeing these scans and photos, but I thought I'd put them up anyway just in case.

[Keel M.]

I'm always fascinated by old maps. I know they would be of some value to historical fiction writers doing research.

[Taun]

I love old maps... When I was in High school I supplemented my income by being a janitor for the neighborhood Elementary school (small town)... They had an old building they

were getting ready to tear down and allowed me to go through and take whatever I wanted... I found several of the old wall maps (the kind that pull down), of the world circa

1918... really cool stuff - wish I still had them...

[Keel M.]

My all-time favourite map for Louisiana shows every single plantation along the Mississippi River within the state. They show up as little stripes along the river, some thicker than others. Forgot what year the map was supposed to be. Before the War I'm sure.

[coolguy]

Very cool I belong to my towns historical society we have old maps and items its cool to touch this stuff

[Indiogene]

Having an interest in maps, historical ones gives us a glimpse of what our hometowns looked like in the past. You see neighborhoods that didn't exist in many of them, while in southern CA, you find maps without freeways displaced some neighborhoods after they were built. Local libraries are great places to find old maps of your area of towns and regions. I found some Thomas Bros. Maps from the 1980s and 90s of Riverside County, CA, there's an older one of Indio, CA from circa 1900 in a local history book and a wall map of the Palm Springs area from the 1970's there, but there's more of them on the internet...like the late 1940's Indio, CA and what I discovered on E-bay is a wall map (only the front cover) placed on bid, however, they are free in libraries.

http://www.ebay.com/...=p2054897.l4276

Pages of past Thomas Bros Maps. guides including Palm Springs. Take your time to look at the variety of places like Ventura, the San Fernando Valley and San Jose. These guides are snapshots of what they appeared in certain years.

http://www.aaroads.c...01256#msg101256

http://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=44186e8320d4b77333da9b63c6a5d808&topic=4456.125

Edited December 7, 2013 by Mike D boy