1892 Rand McNally Map of the United States and the Burlington Railroad

This is an 1892 large format Rand McNally map of the United States highlighting the route of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, commonly known as the Burlington Route. While the map covers the entire United States, the real focus are the routes extending westward from Chicago to, pretty much, the entire country. The Burlington Route is highlighted in black and many of its subsidiaries, including the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, are also labeled. Stops along all the Burlington routes are also identified. Other major railroads in the western United States are highlighted in red, such as the Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, and Southern Pacific. Interior views in the lower left, illustrate the commodious accomiditions onboard the Burlington Route Pullman Palace Sleeping Car, passenger chair car, and dining car.

Time Zones

Perhaps the most eye-catching feature of this map is the large block lettering informing the viewer of the four time zones present in the United States: Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific Time. Time zones, universally adopted in the United States on Sunday, November 18, 1883, were created to standardize railroad times across all the railroads operating within the U.S. Before the implementation of time zones, each railroad operated on its own standard time. In practice, this meant that railroad junctions served by several different railroads had several different clocks, one for each railroad, all set to different times. Universal adoption of standard time was not immediate, and it would not be until the Standard Time Act was adopted on March 19, 1918 that the practice was formally adopted across the country.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Rand McNally for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and published in 1892. Rare. Four examples are recorded in the OCLC as being part of the institutional collections at the Library of Congress, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of California Berkeley.