1906 Walker Bird's Eye View Map of Casco Bay, Portland, Maine

This is a beautiful 1906 George Walker chromolithograph bird's-eye view map of Casco Bay, Portland, Maine. Such views were made for sale at newsstands in stations and onboard ferry lines.

A Closer Look

Casco Bay dominates the foreground, with Mount Washington, the White Mountains, and Lake Sebago in the background. Harpswell Steam Boat Company connects some islands in the bay to Portland. Portland appears in the foreground along the left border with red lines highlighting railroad routes north to Brunswick and Lewiston, west to Montreal and Quebec, and south to Rochester, Worcester, and New York. Islands in Casco Bay (and the communities on them) are labeled.

Chromolithography

Chromolithography, sometimes called oleography, is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process involved using multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Oftentimes, the process would start with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors were layered. Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired product. Chromolithograph color could also be effectively blended for even more dramatic results. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it emerged as the dominant method of color printing. The vivid color chromolithography produced made it exceptionally effective for advertising and propaganda imagery.

Publication History and Census

This view was created and published by George Walker in 1906. We note cataloged examples as being part of the collections at the Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, the New York Public Library, Yale University, the Library of Congress, the Osher Map Library at the University of Southern Maine, the University of Maine at Orono, and Stanford University.