1902 National Publishing Map of the United States and its Territories

This is a 1902 National Publishing Company map of the United States with a typographically elaborate title. Each of the states and territories are divided into counties and the distinction between the developing western states, with enormous scarcely populated counties and the eastern states is made stark by the map's rich coloring. The road network spreads across the country like a web with major cities as hubs. Shipping lanes are noted in the Atlantic and Pacific, with each lane is identified by destination and company. Several inset maps are situated along the lower border, including Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam, Samoa, Tutuila Island, Howland Island, and Baker Island, Alaska (with a smaller inset of the western portion of the Aleutian Islands), and the Philippines.

Publication History and Census

This map was published by The National Publishing Company of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1902. It was first issued in 1901, the present example being the second edition. In the year this map was issued, the National Publishing Company merged with its sister company, the Scarborough Company. The Scarborough Company subsequently split this large map into separately published eastern and western sheets. Six examples are cataloged in OCLC and are part of the institutional collections at the State Library of Massachusetts, the Osher Map Library at the University of Southern Maine, the University of Texas at Arlington, Washington State University, the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, and the University of California Berkeley.