1846 Bradford Map of New Hampshire

NewHampshire-bradford-1846-2
$350.00
New Hampshire. - Main View
New Hampshire. - Main View
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1846 Bradford Map of New Hampshire

NewHampshire-bradford-1846-2

New Hampshire's first railroads.
$350.00

Title

New Hampshire.
  1846 (dated)     15 x 12 in (38.1 x 30.48 cm)     1 : 830000

Description

This is an 1846 Thomas G. Bradford map of New Hampshire. This map is significant for its illustration of New Hampshire's existing and emerging railroad network.
Railroads in New Hampshire in the 1830s and 1840s
During the 1830s and 1840s, there was a significant push to build railroads from Boston across New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain because New York State was no longer issuing charters to out-of-state railroad companies that might compete with the Erie Canal. Thus, by building railways through New Hampshire and Vermont, New York could be mostly avoided. Alas, as with all major undertakings, there was plenty of political pressure against the creation of railroad lines in New Hampshire beyond a simple connection between Boston and Concord from coach companies and other interests. By 1844, the threat of new railroads connecting Massachusetts to Vermont, thus bypassing New Hampshire, forced groups opposing railroad construction in the state to relent. By December 1844, five railroads were chartered in New Hampshire, one of which is expressly labeled here, the Cheshire Railroad. Another, the Wilton Railroad, was never built. By 1846, several different routes were being proposed to reach Burlington, Vermont, via Montpelier. Of these, only two are illustrated here: from Boston (off the map) via Nashua and Concord to Montpelier and Burlington. The other traveled via the Cheshire Railroad (in the southwest corner of New Hampshire) through Keen and Montpelier to Burlington.

Highly detailed, each county is illustrated, labeled, and shaded a different color to allow for easy differentiation. Numerous cities and towns are labeled, including Concord, Dover, and Amherst. Myriad rivers, lakes, and other physical features are identified, including Mount Washington, the highest peak in the northeastern United States.
Publication History and Census
The 1838 copyright on this map corresponds to the first edition - as Bradford did not invest in new copyright registrations despite numerous annual content updates. A note under the bottom border identifies this map as being corrected to 1846. It was engraved by George Washington Boynton and published as plate number 11 in the 1846 large format edition of Bradford and Goodrich's A Universal Illustrated Atlas. Scarce to the market.

CartographerS

Thomas Gamaliel Bradford (1802 - 1887) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked as an assistant editor for the Encyclopedia Americana. Bradford's first major cartographic work was his revision and subsequent republishing of an important French geography by Adrian Balbi, Abrege de Geographie published in America as Atlas Designed to Illustrate the Abridgment of Universal Geography, Modern and Ancient. Afterwards Bradford revised and expanded this work into his own important contributions to American cartography, the 1838 An Illustrated Atlas Geographical, Statistical and Historical of the United States and Adjacent Countries. Bradford's cartographic work is significant as among the first to record Texas as an independent nation. In his long career as a map publisher Bradford worked with William Davis Ticknor of Boston, Freeman Hunt of New York, Charles De Silver of Philadelphia, John Hinton, George Washington Boynton, and others. We have been able to discover little of Bradford's personal life. More by this mapmaker...


George Washington Boynton (fl. c. 1830 - 1850) was a Boston based cartographer and map engraver active in the first half of the 19th century. Boynton engraved and compiled maps for numerous publishers including Thomas Bradford, Nathaniel Dearborn, Daniel Adams, and S. G. Goodrich. His most significant work is most likely his engraving of various maps for Bradford's Illustrated Atlas, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of the United States and the Adjacent Countries and Universal Illustrated Atlas. He also engraved for the Boston Almanac. In 1835, Boynton is listed as an employee of the Boston Bewick Company, an engraving, stereotype, and printing concern based at no. 47 Court Street, Boston. Little else is known of his life. Learn More...

Source

Bradford, T. G. and Goodrich, S. G., A Universal Illustrated Atlas, exhibiting a Geographical, Statistical, and Historical view of the World, (Boston: Charles D. Strong) 1846.     The Universal Illustrated Atlas is one of the great American atlases of the first half of the 19th century. The atlas was first published in 1838 under the imprint of Charles D. Strong. It replaced and superseded Bradford's earlier smaller format Illustrated Atlas, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of the United States and the Adjacent Countries. Numerous reissues of the Universal Illustrated Atlas followed until about 1848. Although there are minor variations between the editions, most contain about 50 maps, the majority of which focus on the United States. Bradford's atlases are significant for recording North America during the Republic of Texas Era. In later editions, particularly the 1846 edition, Bradford illustrates the boom in railroad construction, possibly with the idea that his maps would aid travelers in planning journeys by rail. It was compiled by Thomas Gamaliel Bradford and Samuel Griswold Goodrich with most of the plates engraved by George Washington Boynton (fl. c. 1830 - 1850). Other contributors include Thomas Gordon (1778 - 1848), Fielding Lucas Jr. (1781 - 1854), Samuel Edward Stiles (1844 - 1901), Sherman and Smith (fl. c. 1829 - 1855), and Horace Thayer (1811 - c. 1874).

Condition

Very good. Even overall toning. Blank on verso.

References

Rumsey 0089.008 (1838 edition).