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Maps - Indiana

Indiana Map - 1822

Historic Indiana Map - 1822

This hand colored engraving was published by Henry Charles Carey and Isaac Lea in1822. It was taken from their A Complete Historical, Chronological and Geographical American Atlas published in Philadelphia. The original map is 16 5/8" x 20 3/4" and contains text as well as the map.

The sheets of this atlas covered North America, Central America, South America and the West Indies. The map was surrounded by text which described the boundaries, climate, rivers, chief towns and a historical "sketch" of each state or area.

Fielding Lucas, Jr., an important Baltimore cartographer, drew the map and J. H. Young and Delleker engraved it.

Indiana became a state in April 1816. The earliest settlement came from the south, along the Ohio river, so the detail in the southern part of the state is more detailed and sows towns and roads.

In the upper quarter of the map is a large section of land that was reserved for Indians. Below that are large Wabash and Delaware counties with smaller counties all along the southern and eastern portions of the state.

The text was not included in this reproduction and the map was slightly modified in size to accommodate our archival page protectors.

Click on "click here" for larger, better image. Map size is 14" wide x 11" tall. All of our maps are digitally printed in full color and are authentic historic reproductions from the collection of map collector John Palmer. Keep in mind that all maps are shown on the web in poor quality because that is what the web does. All maps are in beautiful detail! Each map comes in an archivally protective Mylar sleeve. Image may appear to be split or folded. This is not the case and is only a result of scanning in 2 parts. Sorry, we cannot do research for you.

Indiana Map - 1824

Historic Indiana Map - 1824

This striking map of the state comes from Anthony Finley's General Atlas, published in 1824. This hand colored map shows counties, towns, roads, rivers, mountains and other geographical features. A number of counties have not yet been established.

Not much is known about Finley, but it is known that he produced atlases as early as 1818 and employed talented Philadelphia engravers such as H. S. Tanner, J. Vallance, and J. Thackara. Their work is considered to have been remarkable for their distinctiveness and elegance.

The period 1820 to 1840 is considered the Golden Age of American cartography. During this period copper plate engraving accompanied by hand coloring reached its zenith.

The original map is 11" x 9" but this reprint was slightly modified to accommodate our archival page protectors.

Indiana Map - 1832

Historic Indiana Map - 1832

This wonderful map is the first to show both St. Joseph and Elkhart counties, which were established in 1830, in northern Indiana.

Most of Indiana was developed from the southern end of the state, showing the strong influence of Kentucky, Virginia and southern Ohio pioneers.

However, both St. Joseph and Elkhart counties were developed by pioneers from New England, New York, Pennsylvania and the northern part of Ohio. Pioneers followed the Erie Canal as far as Ohio, then either continued on land to Toledo and Vistula, Ohio or took lake passage for Detroit, Michigan. Many followed the Detroit to Chicago Road (commonly known as the Chicago Road) and dropped off at convenient places in Indiana. Both the Vistula Road and the Chicago Road crossed the St. Joseph River, which began in Hillsdale, Michigan and emptied in Lake Michigan at what later became the towns of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, Michigan. In the early days most of the river was easily navigatable by paddle boats.

This map comes from Anthony Finley's 'A New General Atlas, Comprising a Complete Set of Maps, representing the Grand Divisions of the Globe, Together with the several Empires, Kingdoms, and States in the World'; Compiled from the Best Authorities, and corrected by the Most Recent Discoveries, published in Philadelphia in 1832. The engraving was done by Young and Delleker.

Not much is known about Anthony Finley, but it is known that he produced atlases as early as 1818 and employed talented Philadelphia engravers such as Henry S. Tanner, J. Vallance, and J. Thackara. Their work is considered to have been remarkable for their distinctiveness and elegance.

The period 1820 to 1840 is considered the Golden Age of American cartography. During this period copper plate engraving accompanied by hand coloring reached its zenith.

Indiana Map - 1840

This hand colored map was engraved by Jeremiah Greenleaf of Vermont and taken from Greenleaf's A New Universal Atlas; Comprising Separate Maps of All the Principal Empires, Kingdoms, & States Throughout the World and Forming a Distinct Atlas of the United States...A New Edition Revised and Corrected to the Present Time printed in Brattleboro, Vermont in 1840 by G. R. French. The original size of this map was 12 5/8" x 10 3/4" but this reprint was slightly modified to accommodate our archival page protectors.

Greenleaf was born in 1791 and died in 1864.

Greenleaf obtained the publishing rights to the New Universal Atlas from David Burr ( 1803 - 1875 ) who published several atlases between 1830 and 1850.

Burr was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1803 and moved to Kingsboro, New York while still in his teens. His interest in law and his association with Governor Clinton gave him responsibilities as the head of one of the three surveying parties who surveyed the State of New York in 1825.

Burr put out his first 'Atlas of the State of New York' in 1830 and was planning on publishing a New Universal Atlas; Comprising Separate Maps of All the Principal Empires, Kingdoms & States Throughout the World. And Forming a Distinct Atlas of the United States Carefully Compiled from the Best Authorities Extant by David H. Burr when he accepted the position of topographer for the United States Post Office Department. His maps were engraved by Thomas Illman and Edward Pillbrow and they took over the responsibility for finishing the publication . The atlas was published in 1835 by D. S. Stone of New York City.

Greenleaf's atlas came out in 1840; it was probably a revision of David H. Burr's 1836 Universal Atlas.

Indiana Map - 1843

Historic Indiana Map - 1843

This hand colored map was engraved by Sidney B. Morse and published in 1843 by Harper and Brothers in New York. It was taken from Morse's North American Atlas by Sidney Morse and Samuel Breese. Railroad lines both existing and proposed are shown.

The original size of this map is 14 1/8" x 11" but this reprint was modified in order to accommodate our archival page protector.

Sidney Edwards Morse (1794 - 1871) was the son of the Reverend Jedidiah Morse and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Breese, and a younger brother of Samuel F. B. Morse (inventor of the telegraph). Jedidiah Morse had a strong interest in geography, and published several textbooks on geography which sold well and earned him the title of "Father of American Geography".

Sidney Morse, Henry A. Munson and Samuel Breese patented wax engraving in the United States and called the technique "cerography ", which they began using in 1839. This process allowed line and text to be combined in the same image and was one of the first attempts to find an alternative to expensive metal plate engraving for American maps.

Unlike engraving or lithography, which demanded the laborious drawing of a negative image, cerography allowed the image to be drawn directly. The positive image is drawn onto a wax-covered plate that is then used as a mold from which a master printing plate is cast by an electroplating process. Images could be easily cut into the soft wax layer using very little pressure.

In the early maps of Sidney Morse, lettering was hand engraved. Later, type was done by stamping into the wax with commercially produced tools. Type as small as three points could be used to hold a tremendous amount of information in a small amount of space.

With his brother, Samuel F. B. Morse, he constructed and patented a flexible piston pump, and later he invented the bathyometer, an instrument for exploring the depths of the sea.

He was also a prominent journalist in New York and with his brother, Richard, founded the New York Observer, the oldest religious newspaper in the state of New York.

Morse and Breese tried to keep the cerography process secret, but it became widely used in mapmaking, especially after Rand, McNally began using wax engraving in 1872.

Wax engraving remained an important map printing technique until the mid-twentieth century.

Indiana Map - 1850

Historic Indiana Map - 1850

This map is dated 1850 and comes from 'A New Universal Atlas of the World' published by Thomas Cowperthwait and Co. in 1854.

The original size of the map is 14" x 17" but this reprint was slightly modified to accommodate our archival page protectors.

Indiana Map - 1877

Historic Indiana Map - 1877

This full color map was copyrighted by Harper and Brothers in 1877 and appeared in Harper's School Geography with Maps and Illustrations Prepared Expressly for this Work by Eminent American Artists, which was published in 1878.

Harper and Brothers - In March 1817 John and James Harper founded Harper Brothers, a small printing firm in New York. In 1825 their brothers, Joseph and Fletcher, joined the company. In 1833 the company name was changed to Harper and Brothers.

The company soon became the largest book publisher in the United States, publishing both fiction and non fiction. Their authors included Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, Mark Twain and Henry James.

Early in their career Harper and Brothers began to publish maps and atlases, using well established engravers, such as Alexander G. Findlay (not to be confused with Anthony Finley).

Their success as book publishers encouraged them to launch their own magazine, Harper's Monthly, in 1850. In 1857 the magazine became Harper's Weekly.