Detail-rich historic atlases are reprinted
Mapmaking was a high art and a big business in the 19th century, when cartographers and publishing companies all over the United States combined forces to produce handsomely printed atlases of cities, counties and states. Maine was no exception, and atlases of each of the state’s 16 counties made their appearance in the 1880s.
Striking in their detail, these atlases depicted their respective regions at various scales. Five miles to the inch was sufficient to squeeze all of Washington County into two oversized pages of the George N. Colby Co.’s 1881 atlas of that county, while 330 feet to the inch worked for the City of Eastport. Princeton, which takes up half a page in the Washington County atlas, is scaled at 30 rods (495 feet) to the inch.
Now a group in eastern Washington County is working with a small press to re-publish a number of county atlases, including Washington and Hancock counties and Essex, Bristol and Plymouth counties in Massachusetts.
“These books present a unique resource in genealogical/historical research, title work, and in locating and identifying old cellar holes,” writes Leonard Healy of the Trescott Historical Society in Whiting, the group orchestrating the re-publication project.
The map of Cutler, for example, depicts not only Little River, which forms the town’s harbor, but also shows all the village’s houses, lining the road through town, with the names of every owner in 1881 next to each. Wharves, stores and even a silver and copper mine are shown, as are the boathouse, lighthouse and bell tower on Little River Island at the river’s mouth.
Roque Island, identified as “Longfellow’s Island,” rates a map of its own with many landmarks identified. Eastport, likewise, is depicted in detail, with nearly two dozen wharves, all named, as well as virtually every residence in town.
Both the Washington and Hancock County atlases include a bonus: data from the first federal census (1790) for those counties. Since Hancock County in 1790 comprised a much larger area than it does today, the census data covers Islesboro, Belfast, Camden and other towns that are now in different counties.
The maps in these atlases are in “cadastral” format, meaning they show just about everything in a given area, line by line, like modern surveys and some tax maps.
Colby’s original Washington County atlas was sold in advance to subscribers and patrons and never had a second printing. The first printing was sold out by 1884, and today original copies are rare. Hancock County’s atlas was sold out even earlier, by 1882.
Moon River Press (“Publishers to the Trade since 1922”), based in Whiting, specializes in vintage reprints.
Paperback reprints of the Washington and Hancock County atlases sell for $19.50 apiece and may be ordered from Moon River Press, P.O. Box 1, Whiting, ME 04691. The Trescott Historical Society maintains at website at www.trescotthistory.org.