1842 Hoar and Mead City Plan or Map of Nashua and Nashville, New Hampshire

This is an 1842 J. Hoar and F. Mead wall-sized city plan or map of Nashua and Nashville, New Hampshire, and one of the first large-scale commercial map of the city. The Nashua River bisects Nashua and Nashville, with a bridge, labeled 'Main Street,' connecting the two. Streets throughout both villages are identified. Individual buildings are also illustrated, and over forty of these are numerically labeled. The corresponding index, situated in the upper right corner, lists the 1st Congregational Church and several other churches, a handful of schoolhouses, and several other locations around town. Only the cemetery, burial site, Nashua Mills, and the canal basin are directly labeled on the map; all other specific sites bear a number. 'Sandy Pond' and the surrounding forest are attractively illustrated in the lower-left corner, and Salmon Brook and the Mill Pond occupy space along the bottom border. The Merrimack River flows from top to bottom along the right side.

Publication History and Census

This map was created and published by J. Hoar and F. Mead in 1842, likely from surveys they undertook themselves and engraved by George Boynton. The map was sold commercially by subscription, with a very limited run,and so very few examples survive today. Two examples are cataloged in OCLC and are part of the institutional collections at the State Library of Massachusetts and Dartmouth Library. A third is part of the collection at the New Hampshire Historical Society. Extremely rare.