Map of Washington City
Item Information
- Title:
- Map of Washington City
- Description:
-
Albert Boschke (1823-1910) was a German-born civil engineer who worked for the US Coastal Survey from around 1850 through the end of the Civil War. He served as both a draughtsman and field surveyor, held positions of increasing responsibility, and made valuable contributions to the charting of the harbors of Boston, Charleston, New York and other locales. Though a Federal employee, in the mid-1850s he undertook to map the District of Columbia as a commercial venture, with the hope of selling maps both privately and to the government. The eight wards of the city are color coded. Boschke documented the location and exterior plan of every public and private building, with insets that include population changes, distances to Baltimore, New York, St. Louis, New Orleans, and the cities physical characteristics. The map is surrounded by eighteen pictorial vignettes, including the White House, Capitol, Treasury, National Observatory, Presidents House, Post office, Patent Office, Lunatic Asylum, City Hall, Armory, Arsenal, Navy Yard, Smithsonian, National Monument, and Military Asylum, as well as a portrait of George Washington and the Great Seal at top and bottom center respectively.
- Cartographer:
- Boschke, A.
- Date:
-
1857
- Format:
-
Maps/Atlases
- Location:
- MacLean Collection Map Library
- Collection (local):
-
MacLean Collection Map Library
- Subjects:
-
Washington (D.C.)--Maps
- Places:
-
Washington
- Extent:
- 1 map : color ; 158 cm x 148 cm
- Terms of Use:
-
Public Domain/No known restrictions on use. Contact host institution to download image.
Contact host institution for more information.
- Publisher:
-
Washington D.C. :
A. Boschke
- Scale:
-
Scale [1:6,000]
- Language:
-
English
- Notes:
-
Boschke's map of 1857 is one of, if not the most, impressive map of antebellum Washington. Boschke worked on his survey of the city and surrounding areas in the lead up to the Civil War, but following the fall of Fort Sumpter the capital's position was deemed very precarious, and detailed plans of the area were seen as sensitive intelligence. The War Department seized the plates for Boschke's 1861 map, ending its production and limiting extant copies to but a few proofs. The 1857 edition may have suffered from some similar fate, as today it is extremely rare; we were able to track only one example on the market in the last 60 years, and that one in a dealer's catalog from 1958.
Copper plate engraving.
Cadastral map showing buildings and wards.
Includes notes, statistical tables, and 18 illusrations in the border.
- Notes (citation):
-
Miller, Washington in Maps, 1606-2000, pages 84-87
- Identifier:
-
MacLeanColl_35311_Wash-DC
- Call #:
-
35311
IIIF Manifest