Jacob Rau (1821 - ????) was a New York based engraver and lithographer who advertised himself as a 'practical lithographer.' He was born in Holstein, Germany and emigrated to New York between 1848 an 1850, likely fleeting repercussions from involvement in the Revolutions of 1848, making him a 48er. He maintained offices at 333 Broadway and later at 381 Pearl Street, where he published works in association with others from the German-American immigrant community, most prominent among them Gustav Kraetzer (1822 - 1901). Rau published maps, views, advertising, and books. He has some association with the Nicaraguan-German civil engineer Maximilian von Sonnenstern (1819 - 1895), also a 48er from Württemberg, for whom he published several seminal maps. From 1864 he was associated with Edward Valois, also a lithographer, with whom he published under the imprint of 'Valois and Rau.' His production seems to have stopped in the late 1860s.
