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1846 Bradford Map of Massachusetts
Massachusetts-bradford-1846$175.00
Title
Massachusetts.
1846 (dated) 12 x 14.75 in (30.48 x 37.465 cm) 1 : 930000
1846 (dated) 12 x 14.75 in (30.48 x 37.465 cm) 1 : 930000
Description
This is an 1846 Thomas G. Bradford map of Massachusetts. The map depicts the region from New York to the Atlantic Ocean and from Vermont and New Hampshire to Block Island. As is prevalent among many maps from Bradford's A Universal Illustrated Atlas, the recently constructed rail network throughout Massachusetts and the surrounding states is highlighted. Many newly-chartered railroad companies, including as the Old Colony Railroad, the Norwich and Worcester Railroad, and the Worcester and Providence Railroad, are labeled. Each of these railroads would follow the same general trajectory: begin operations, go through a series of mergers and acquisitions, and eventually be acquired by another, even larger, railroad company. Some of the lines illustrated here are still in operation today, while others, such as portions of the Old Colony Railroad's network, have been converted into multi-use rail trails.
Highly detailed, each county is illustrated, labeled, and shaded a different color to allow for easy differentiation. Boston, in Suffolk County, which is colored blue, can easily be identified along Massachusetts Bay. Both Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are illustrated and labeled. Numerous cities and towns throughout Massachusetts are identified. Rivers and canals area also illustrated and labeled.
This map was engraved by George Boynton and published in the 1846 edition of Bradford and Goodrich's A Universal Illustrated Atlas.
Highly detailed, each county is illustrated, labeled, and shaded a different color to allow for easy differentiation. Boston, in Suffolk County, which is colored blue, can easily be identified along Massachusetts Bay. Both Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are illustrated and labeled. Numerous cities and towns throughout Massachusetts are identified. Rivers and canals area also illustrated and labeled.
This map was engraved by George Boynton and published in the 1846 edition of Bradford and Goodrich's A Universal Illustrated Atlas.
CartographerS
Thomas Gamaliel Bradford (1802 - 1887) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked as an assistant editor for the Encyclopedia Americana. Bradford's first major cartographic work was his revision and subsequent republishing of an important French geography by Adrian Balbi, Abrege de Geographie published in America as Atlas Designed to Illustrate the Abridgment of Universal Geography, Modern and Ancient. Afterwards Bradford revised and expanded this work into his own important contributions to American cartography, the 1838 An Illustrated Atlas Geographical, Statistical and Historical of the United States and Adjacent Countries. Bradford's cartographic work is significant as among the first to record Texas as an independent nation. In his long career as a map publisher Bradford worked with William Davis Ticknor of Boston, Freeman Hunt of New York, Charles De Silver of Philadelphia, John Hinton, George Washington Boynton, and others. We have been able to discover little of Bradford's personal life. More by this mapmaker...
George Washington Boynton (fl. c. 1830 - 1850) was a Boston based cartographer and map engraver active in the first half of the 19th century. Boynton engraved and compiled maps for numerous publishers including Thomas Bradford, Nathaniel Dearborn, Daniel Adams, and S. G. Goodrich. His most significant work is most likely his engraving of various maps for Bradford's Illustrated Atlas, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of the United States and the Adjacent Countries and Universal Illustrated Atlas. He also engraved for the Boston Almanac. In 1835, Boynton is listed as an employee of the Boston Bewick Company, an engraving, stereotype, and printing concern based at no. 47 Court Street, Boston. Little else is known of his life. Learn More...
Source
Bradford, T. G. and Goodrich, S. G., A Universal Illustrated Atlas, exhibiting a Geographical, Statistical, and Historical view of the World, (Boston: Charles D. Strong) 1846.
The Universal Illustrated Atlas is one of the great American atlases of the first half of the 19th century. The atlas was first published in 1838 under the imprint of Charles D. Strong. It replaced and superseded Bradford's earlier smaller format Illustrated Atlas, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of the United States and the Adjacent Countries. Numerous reissues of the Universal Illustrated Atlas followed until about 1848. Although there are minor variations between the editions, most contain about 50 maps, the majority of which focus on the United States. Bradford's atlases are significant for recording North America during the Republic of Texas Era. In later editions, particularly the 1846 edition, Bradford illustrates the boom in railroad construction, possibly with the idea that his maps would aid travelers in planning journeys by rail. It was compiled by Thomas Gamaliel Bradford and Samuel Griswold Goodrich with most of the plates engraved by George Washington Boynton (fl. c. 1830 - 1850). Other contributors include Thomas Gordon (1778 - 1848), Fielding Lucas Jr. (1781-1854), Samuel Edward Stiles (1844 - 1901), Sherman and Smith (fl. c. 1829 - 1855), and Horace Thayer (1811 - c. 1874).
Condition
Very good. Even overall toning. Blank on verso.
References
Rumsey 0089.010 (1838 edition).