Colton’s California and Nevada

Date: 1873
Place: New York
Dimensions: 44.5 x 63.8 cm (17.5 x 25.1 in)
Condition Rating: VG

Out of stock

SKU: NL-00299 Category: Tag:

1873 Colton California and Nevada with extended San Bernadino County

Details

This handsome double-page map with decorative borders shows early county development in California: the huge San Bernardino Country extends nearly across the state with no sign of Orange County (created in 1889).

Railroads are well developed with the lines in or planned to Ft. Yuma, Needles, and extending north to Ft. Reading.

Cartographer(s):

George Woolworth Colton and Charles B. Colton

Colton & Co: The Colton mapmaking company was founded by Joseph Hutchins Colton in 1831. A native son of Massachusetts, Colton set up his firm in the metropolis of New York, drawing at first on established cartographers and engravers (e.g. David H. Burr and Samuel Stiles) to license maps. By the 1840s, however, the Colton firm was producing its own maps. They produced anything the market desired, from massive and impressive wall-maps to pockets guides, folding maps, immigrant guides, and atlases. One of the things that set the Colton company aside from many of its contemporaries in terms of quality, was the insistence that only steel plate engravings be used for Colton maps. These created much more well-defined print lines, allowing even minute features and labels to stand out clearly.

In the 1850s Colton’s two sons, George Woolworth and Charles B., were brought on board to the firm. This inaugurated a process of expansion in which the company began taking international commissions and producing wholly independent maps and charts.

Condition Description

Light toning along sheet edges, a few minor spots of foxing, and a tiny centerfold separation at left.

References