1910 Rand Avery Map of the New England (Boston and Maine Railroad)

This is a scarce c.1910 tourist map of New England published by the Rand Avery Supply Company. Issued as a tourist map, it depicts the regions along the Boston and Maine Railroad lines (not the Pan Am Railways), and covers from Provincetown north to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and from Nova Scotia west as far as Montreal. Throughout, the map notes cities, towns, islands, rivers, lakes and a host of additional topographical features. Railway lines are marked in red throughout. The map also notes several hotels and resorts along the way. This map, unusually near the top, changes into a bird's eye view perspective to illustrate the sky. An illustration of a hot air balloon is included to divert attention to this change in perspective.

Boston and Maine Railroad

Commonly known as the 'B and M', the Boston and Maine Railroad was chartered in New Hampshire on June 27, 1835. The firm consolidated several smaller companies, including the Andover and Haverhill Railroad and later the Boston and Portland Railroad. It merged with the Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts Railroad in 1842, but retained the Boston and Maine operating name. In the subsequent decades it acquired or leased several other railroads, including the Boston and Lowell (1887), Northern (1884), Connecticut River (1893), Concord and Montreal (1887), and Fitchburg (1900). In 1910 it was acquired by J. P. Morgan and his New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The firm initially prospered on the development of mill towns throughout New England and later capitalized on tourism from urban centers Boston and New York. Nonetheless, the railroad went through a decline during the Great Depression, when most of the old textile mills closed. Part of the Boston and Maine network remains in operation today under the Pan Am Railways (PAS) brand.

Publication History and Census

This map was published by the Rand Avery Supply Company in Boston, Massachusetts.