1855 J. Calvin Smith and Colton Map of the Upper Midwest

UpperMidwest-smithcolton-1855
$1,200.00
Guide Through Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Showing the Township lines of the United States Surveys, Locations of Cities, Towns, Villages, Post Hamlets, Canals, Rail and Stage Roads. - Main View
Processing...

1855 J. Calvin Smith and Colton Map of the Upper Midwest

UpperMidwest-smithcolton-1855

Detailing the transportation network of the Upper Midwest.
$1,200.00

Title


Guide Through Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Showing the Township lines of the United States Surveys, Locations of Cities, Towns, Villages, Post Hamlets, Canals, Rail and Stage Roads.
  1855 (dated)     21.75 x 25.5 in (55.245 x 64.77 cm)     1 : 2250000

Description


This is an 1855 John Calvin Smith and John H. Colton map of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Iowa, along with part of Minnesota. The map captures a pivotal moment as mass emigration, developing industries, and displaced indigenous people transformed regional social, economic, and political spheres.
A Closer Look
This map accompanied a tourist and traveler's guide, its most striking feature a detailed depiction of the regional transportation network. An ever-growing railroad network connected major population centers. Canals, another important part of the nation's transportation network, appear as well. The transportation network is the aspect of this map that shows the most advancement over earlier editions. The railroad network in southern Wisconsin is greatly expanded and two lines stretch through the Minnesota Territory. County boundaries and names change in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Another change is reflected in statistical tables. On the 1854 edition, steamboat routes are detailed, while here, on the 1855 edition, 1850 Census data for the depicted region is provided.
Historical Context
In the 1850s, the Upper Midwest of the United States, encompassing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and parts of Illinois and Iowa, was in the midst of transformation. This era was marked by rapid development, fueled by the Industrial Revolution and an influx of European immigrants and domestic settlers attracted by the promise of fertile farmland and burgeoning industries. Agriculture, lumber, and mining became the cornerstones of the regional economy. The construction of railroads and canals during this period played a crucial role in connecting the Upper Midwest to larger markets, facilitating the movement of people, goods, and resources, and contributing to the region's economic and demographic growth. The 1850s also saw the intensification of conflicts between settlers and Native American tribes, as expansion often encroached on indigenous lands, leading to displacement and cultural upheaval.
Publication History and Census
This map was created by J. Calvin Smith, engraved by Samuel Stiles and Sherman and Smith, and published by J. H. Colton in 1855. We note 6 examples cataloged in OCLC: Yale University, Harvard University, the University of Akron, the Indiana State Library, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Editions of this map were published as early as 1846. Numerous changes were made to the plates, even between the 1854 (see uppermidwest-smithcolton-1854) and 1855 editions. Thus it is difficult to know exactly how many examples of each edition have been cataloged, as there may be cataloging irregularities with the OCLC entries.

CartographerS


John Calvin Smith (1809 – June 11, 1890) was an American surveyor and geographer active in New York during the middle part of the 19th century. He was a charter member of the American Geographical and Statistical Society (American Geographical Society). He worked with other important New York cartographers including John Disturnell, George Sherman, and Samuel Stiles, with whom he often published under the Stiles, Sherman & Smith imprint. Stiles may have introduced Smith to J. H. Colton, who acquired many of his map plates in 1853. Most of Smith's maps focus on New York counties, but he also issued maps of the United States, Illinois, Texas, and the California gold fields. Despite being an important and prolific cartographer, much of his personal life and history are shrouded in mystery. More by this mapmaker...


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 would proceed 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 established European firms for the U.S. market. In 1855, G.W. Colton issued volume one 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, which lacked the border. 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 sum of 25,000 USD by the government of Bolivia to produce and deliver 10,000 copies 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 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, received as much as 100,000 USD in compensation. Nonetheless, at the time it must have been a disastrous blow. J. H. Colton and Company is listed as one of New York's failed companies in the postal record of 1859. It must have been this that 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 atlas well in to 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. Learn More...


Samuel Stiles (July 15, 1796 - April 3, 1861) was a New York based engraver of maps and bank notes active in the middle part of the 19th century. Stiles was born in East Windsor, Connecticut, and there served his apprenticeship as a line-engraver under self-taught master Abner Reed. In 1821, following his apprenticeship, Stiles relocated to Hartford, Connecticut, with is former master, Abner Reed, to form the firm of Reed and Stiles. Reed and Stiles worked in portrait, historical, landscape, and map engraving on wood and copper. Another former Reed apprentice, Pelton, joined the firm in 1822, changing the name of the firm to Reed, Stiles, and Pelton. Around this time, he also joined the Connecticut State Militia where he was commissioned as a corporal in the same Calvary regiment as his brother Asabel Chapin Stiles. In 1824, he relocated to Utica, New York, where worked with Vistus Balch, also a former Reed apprentice. Stiles and Balch moved to New York together in 1828 to found Balch and Stiles, banknote engravers. In 1833, Samuel Stiles partnered with Joseph Hutchins Colton, then a young man, to found Stiles and Company – Colton being the 'company.' This partnership lasted until 1836 when he and Colton published their great plan of New York City, known as the 'Colton Map.' Colton went his own way and became a major American map publisher. Stiles moved a few blocks away and partnered with George E. Sherman and Colin Smith to found Stiles, Sherman and Smith. The partnership dissolved in 1840 and Stiles took up again with J. H. Colton, who was already becoming prominent. In 1841, he joined the firm of Danforth, Ball, and Company, Bank Note Engravers. This firm eventually merged into the American Bank Note Company. In 1859 Stiles became a founding member of the National Banknote Company, which incorporated as the American Banknote Company. He was the treasurer of this successful firm until his death in 1861. On a side note, Stiles married the daughter of Abner Reed, Charlotte Sophia Reed, in 1825. Their son, Henry Reed Stiles attained fame of his own as historian and genealogist. Learn More...


Sherman and Smith (fl. c. 1829 - 1855), sometimes working as Stiles, Sherman & Smith, were American engravers active in New York City during the middle part of the 19th century. The firm including John Calvin Smith (surveyor and engraver), George E. Sherman, and sometimes, Samuel Stiles. Their work primarily focused on government publications, including the maps and engravings prepared to illustrate the official records of the 1838-42 United States Exploring Expedition (U.S. Ex. Ex.), maps issued for the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, and various U.S. Coast Survey Charts. They also engraved privately for Thomas Bradford and John Disturnell, among others. Sherman and Smith maintained offices at the corner of Broadway and Liberty Street in New York City and were highly regarded as the finest cartographic engravers in the city. Their non-cartographic legacies include George Inness, who apprenticed with them for two years before going on to become a well regarding American landscape painter of the Hudson River School. Learn More...

Source


Colton, J. H., Colton's Traveler and Tourist's Guide-Book Through the Western States and Territories., (New York: J.H. Colton and Company) 1856.    

Condition


Fair. Wear and toning along original fold lines. Verso repairs to fold separations. Several areas of infill at fold intersections.

References


OCLC 272750590, 864114769.