1960 Garfield Pictorial Map of Concord, Massachuetts

Starting Point of the American Revolution.

This is Alva Scott Garfield's c. 1960 pictorial map of Concord, Massachusetts. It highlights the town's historically and culturally significant sites, from the 1775 battle that started the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783) to sites linked with native son Henry David Thoreau and other Transcendentalist writers.

A Closer Look

The view, oriented roughly towards the northeast, illustrates several dozen important structures, sites, and events from the town's long history up to the present day (c. 1960). References are made to the location of an Indian village (per Thoreau) and to a tree adjacent to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery under which a treaty was signed between early English settlers and the local Indians. Subsequent events and history are referenced, including the 'shot heard round the world' when colonial militia skirmished with British redcoats at the North Bridge, now a National Historic Park. Historic homes, churches, schoolhouses, and other buildings are labeled throughout, including some relatively modern ones such as the railroad station, Veterans Hall, and a Howard Johnson's hotel. The map is ringed by a border consisting of the fruit and vines of the eponymous Concord grape, developed in 1849 by local viticulturist Ephraim Wales Bull.

Many of the illustrations and accompanying text make reference to the town's connection to the Transcendentalists, particularly Henry David Thoreau, who was born, spent most of his life, and died in the town, living in a simple cabin near Walden Pond at the height of his fame. Aside from Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Amos Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott) also lived in the town for considerable portions of their lives. These figures, among others, are all buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

Publication History and Census

This view was drawn by Alva Scott Garfield and published by her, operating as Scott-Maps. It is undated, but generally dated to c. 1950 - 1960. The map is scarce to the market and held among the collections of the Boston Public Library, Harvard University, the Boston Athenaeum, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Wisconsin Historical Society, and the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.

Cartographer

Alva Scott Garfield (1902 – 1993), a.k.a. Alva Scott Mitchell, was a New England based writer, academic, and artist active in the middle part of the 20th century. Garfield graduated from Wellesley College. She also attended Radcliffe College in the late 1920s. Her first map appears to have been the Newe Mapp of Wellesley, published in 1926, and described as 'so delightful that every Wellesley and Dana girl will surely want one.' From about 1949, Garfield produced a series of whimsical pictorial maps, referred to collectively as 'Scott-Maps,' of various Mid-Atlantic and New England locations, including Harvard, Boston, Concord, Salem, Cape Code, Maine, and New Jersey.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Even overall toning. Closed edge tears professionally repaired on verso.

References

Rumsey 8779.000. OCLC 228430713, 940774584, 1039347181.