1876 / 1878 Colton Map of Florida

Railroad Race to Tampa.

This is a c. 1878 sectional map of Florida published by G.W. and C.B. Colton, successors to J. H. Colton. Among other features, the map demonstrates the rapid growth of the central and even southern portions of the state, facilitated by the expansion of railroads and their utilization of large land grants provided by the state.

A Closer Look

This map covers the entirety of the state of Florida with counties color-shaded for easy distinction. In addition to cities and towns, the state's many and varied waterways are indicated, along with terrain, forts, military reservations, and land grants, including the remnants of the planned Jewish settlement of Moses Elias Levy (1782 - 1854, for more information, see our FloridaSectional-colton-1882). Survey lines cover the entire map, reflecting the semi-frontier status of much of the state at the time. Several ephemeral place names or early variant spellings of place names appear, most notably Orlando appearing as 'Orlandino.' At the bottom-left, an inset of the Caribbean appears, itself with insets of Bermuda and Havana.

Florida Railroads

This map is notable for its inclusion of some of the earliest railroads to push into central Florida, which spurred rapid economic and demographic growth. Multiple railroad concessions were granted, including the South Florida Railroad and the Atlantic, Gulf and West India Transit Company, in which rail companies were given large land grants that they could continue to benefit from as plantations and other industries were established along the routes they had built. Lateral routes across the state also connected Jacksonville with Pensacola and Mobile. Some of the railroads here are projected rather than extant at the time of publication. Indeed, the South Florida Railroad was likely only just incorporated at the time of publication (see 'Publication History and Census' below) and lacked a charter until December 1879, when it acquired that of the earlier, chartered but unbuilt, Lake Monroe and Orlando Railroad. Once receiving its charter, the company quickly built a line between Orlando and Sanford and tried to expand rapidly southwards towards Tampa, as it was in a race with the Florida Transit and Peninsular Railroad (a successor to the Atlantic, Gulf and West India Transit Company). The South Florida Railroad, having been incorporated into Henry B. Plant's (1819 - 1899) 'Plant System,' completed a narrow-gauge line to Tampa in December 1883, giving it choice access to Tampa's important and growing port facilities. Later, this line was converted to standard gauge to accommodate larger trains and facilitate easier connections with the rest of the Plant System.

Second Florida Land Boom

In the second half of the 19th and throughout the early 20th century, Florida experienced a series of land booms and crashes. The first followed the Second Seminole War (1835 - 1842), when the government offered homesteaders who agreed to stay for five years 160 acres of free land. The second - represented on this map - follows the arrival of the railroads in central Florida, leading to nearly 15 years of prosperity and economic growth, mostly revolving around the booming citrus industry. New settlements sprang up throughout the northern half of the state, many owned by absentee investors who never personally visited Florida. The boom collapsed in 1894-95 when a series of historic freezes wiped out the citrus harvest. Property depreciation following the freezes allowed Henry Flagler (1830 - 1913) to develop the Florida East Coast Railway. This, and the arrival of the highway system in the 1920s, led to the third Florida land boom from 1920 to the stock market crash of 1929.

Publication History and Census

This map was published by G.W. and C.B. Colton, inheritors of the Colton cartographic publishing firm. It is dated 1876, but due to the inclusion of the South Florida Railroad (incorporated in October 1878), it was almost certainly printed in 1878. Indeed, a comparison of the present map with the dated 1878 issue of 'Colton's Township Map of the State of Florida' (digitized by the Touchton Map Library, Accession Number: L2018.078.076) shows a very high level of similarity despite the latter map cutting off the bottom portion of the state and putting it in an inset at bottom-left in place of the map of the Caribbean here. There is also a printing (Touchton Map Library, Accession Number: L2018.078.079) dated 1876 (in the copyright at the bottom, not in the title as here) and titled simply 'Colton's Township Map…' rather than 'Colton's New Township Map…' with the arrangement of South Florida in an inset as in the dated 1878 issue. There had been a 'New Township Map' of Florida published since 1868, confirmed by the copyright below the title here, indicating that the present map was the last of the 'New Township' maps, after which 'New' was dropped from the title. Therefore, we can assume that at some point in late 1878, this map was published, then modified, with a new copyright secured, and republished, dropping 'New' from the title in the process. The reason for so many printings in quick succession is likely related to the firm seeking to quickly issue up-to-date maps reflecting the fast-changing situation in the state. A date of late 1878 or early 1879 for the present map is also supported by the lack of the Florida Southern Railway (not to be confused with the South Florida Railroad), which was chartered in 1879.

Due to these complexities, establishing a true census of this particular printing is challenging. In any event, OCLC records only three examples of maps with this title ('New Township Map'), dated 1876, held by Vassar College, the American Antiquarian Society, and the New York Public Library. However, the NYPL example is cataloged with a significantly different scale (1:400000), suggesting another printing. As mentioned above, the Tampa Bay History Center's Touchton Map Library holds examples dated to 1876 and 1878, but neither matches the present map.

Cartographer

Joseph Hutchins Colton (July 5, 1800 - July 29, 1893), often publishing as J. H. Colton, was an important American map and atlas publisher active from 1833 to 1897. Colton's firm arose from humble beginnings when he moved to New York in 1831 and befriended the established engraver, Samuel Stiles. He worked under Stiles as the 'Co.' in Stiles and Co. from 1833 to 1836. Colton quickly recognized an emerging market in railroad maps and immigrant guides. Not a cartographer or engraver himself, Colton's initial business practice mostly involved purchasing the copyrights of other cartographers, most notably David H. Burr, and reissuing them with updated engraving and border work. His first maps, produced in 1833, were based on earlier Burr maps and depicted New York State and New York City. Between 1833 and 1855, Colton proceeded to publish a large corpus of guidebooks and railroad maps, which proved popular. In the early 1850s, Colton brought his two sons, George Woolworth Colton (1827 - 1901) and Charles B. Colton (1832 - 1916), into the map business. G. W. Colton, trained as a cartographer and engraver, was particularly inspired by the idea of creating a large and detailed world atlas to compete with established European firms for the U.S. market. In 1855, G.W. Colton issued volume one of the impressive two-volume Colton's Atlas of the World. Volume two followed a year later. Possibly because of the expense of purchasing a two-volume atlas set, the sales of the Atlas of the World did not meet Colton's expectations, and so, in 1856, the firm also issued the atlas as a single volume. The maps contained in this superb work were all original engravings, and most bear an 1855 copyright. All of the maps were surrounded by an attractive spiral motif border that would become a hallmark of Colton's atlas maps well into the 1880s. In 1857, the slightly smaller Colton's General Atlas replaced the Atlas of the World. Most early editions of the General Atlas published from 1857 to 1859 do not have the trademark Colton spiral border, which was removed to allow the maps to fit into a smaller format volume. Their customers must have missed the border because it was reinstated in 1860 and remained in all subsequent publications of the atlas. There were also darker times ahead; in 1858, Colton was commissioned at a sum of 25,000 USD by the government of Bolivia to produce and deliver 10,000 copies of a large format map of that country. Although Colton completed the contract in good faith, delivering the maps at his own expense, he was never paid by Bolivia, which was at the time in the midst of a series of national revolutions. Colton would spend the remainder of his days fighting with the Bolivian and Peruvian governments over this payment, and in the end, after a congressional intervention, he received as much as 100,000 USD in compensation. Nonetheless, at the time, it was a disastrous blow. J. H. Colton and Company is listed as one of New York's failed companies in the postal record of 1859. This led Colton into the arms of Alvin Jewett Johnson and Ross C. Browning. The 1859 edition of Colton's General Atlas lists Johnson and Browning as the 'Successor's to J. H. Colton' suggesting an outright buyout, but given that both companies continued to publish separately, the reality is likely more complex. Whatever the case may have been, this arrangement gave Johnson and Browning access to many of Colton's map plates and gave birth to Johnson's New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas. The Johnson's Atlas was published parallel to Colton's atlases well into the 1880s. The Colton firm itself subsequently published several other atlases including an Atlas of America, the Illustrated Cabinet Atlas, the Octavo Atlas of the Union, and Colton's Quarto Atlas of the World. They also published a large corpus of wall maps, pocket maps, and guides. The last known publications of the Colton firm date to 1897 and include a map and a view, both issued in association with the Merchant's Association of New York. Alice M. Colton married August R. Ohman (May 3, 1859 - April 22, 1934) on January 5, 1897. In 1898, Ohman joined the Colton firm, which continued to publish as Colton, Ohman & Co. until 1901.   Further Details...

Condition

Poor. Map exhibits staining and older tape damage (tape removed) along most fold lines. Some loss at folds reinstated. Laid down on linen.

References

OCLC 908992005. Touchton Map Library Accession Number: L2018.078.079 (alternate printing), L2018.078.076 (1878 ed.). Rumsey 6817.002 (1868 ed.).