1852 Williams and Redding Map of New England: Telegraph and Railroad

An extremely rare large format 1852 map of New England published by Alexander Williams and George C. Redding. This was the best railroad map of New England issued following the explosion of railroad construction in the late 1840s. It was prepared to facilitate the first wide scale timely newspaper distribution network in New England. The map covers from the Hudson Valley in Eastern New York to the Maine / New Brunswick border, including all of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as parts of Maine. It provides a detailed breakdown of the rail network as of 1852, including identification of railroad companies, distances, and notes on the construction of the many lines. An inset at bottom center details the Grand Junction Railroad.

New England Railroad Network

The rail network in New England began being constructed in the early 1830s, with lines like the Boston-Providence Line and Boston-Lowell Line being the first. Despite these outliers, by far the bulk of the railroad network was constructed between 1841 and 1852, with the majority being constructed after 1847, particularly outside of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The first compressive railroad map of New England was David Burr's 1839 postal map. Burr included on his 1839 map lines he anticipated being completed by 1840, but even so, at its issue, there were then less than 20 lines active in New England, the majority of which were in Massachusetts. New Hampshire and Rhode Island had only a single active line, Maine and Connecticut had two, and Vermont had none. By 1852, there were more than 100 active lines running throughout New England by various competing companies, many of which used different track gauges and actively worked to confound their competitors. The New England rail network was not comprehensively consolidated onto a single map until 1852, when two maps were issued, the present map by Williams, and a more common map by J. H. Colton.

First Newspaper Distribution Network

When this map was issued, Williams was a partner at the George C. Redding bookselling and publishing firm, Redding and Co. The Redding firm was best known at the time as Boston agents for various periodicals and newspapers from around the United States and Europe. Leveraging the potential of the fast expanding railroad network, Williams established the first expansive distribution system for rapidly sending current newspapers and periodicals throughout New England. This was a remarkable and novel achievement for the time, as described by the Boston Globe,

…in the following year [1841] Williams became a silent partner in the business with Mr. Redding. Here Mr. Williams found exceptional opportunity for the display of his organizing ability. Up to this time there was no such thing as dispatch in sending magazines and papers to other parts of New England, and he organized a system for his own special purpose. It was by his enterprise that people in the towns of Maine, New Hampshire and Western Massachusetts, and even as far as Canada, were able to receive weekly papers and magazines the day after their publication.

Most Accurate and Sophisticated Early New England Railroad Map

We can only imagine Williams' frustration in trying to organize and maintain this delivery network without a comprehensive map illustrating all of the railroad lines throughout New England in detail. Thus, with his characteristic industry, Williams set out to create one, producing the presently offered map in 1852, the same year that J. H. Colton issued his own important railroad map of the same region. Even so, Williams' map is far superior to the Colton map. Williams sacrifices topographical detail to focus on clarity in describing railroad network, with graduated makings along the lines, distances, clear notation of stops, and identification of each railroad company. With this map in hand, it is easy to understand how Williams and Redding managed the reliable and fast distribution of newspapers throughout New England.

Census on Rarity and Editions

Despite the obvious utility of Williams' map, its rarity suggests that it was meant mostly for internal use in the Williams-Redding distribution network or simply not issued in great quantities. The present offering is the rare first edition, but later editions were issued in 1854 and 1855. The Library of Congress owns both of these, but not the first edition. The New York Public Library owns an 1854 edition. Two inferior uncolored examples of the first edition appear at the Boston Public Library.