New Inventory

Birds Eye View of Casco Bay 1905 - with WWII manuscript Mosquito Eradication Plan drawn on the map

    This unique example of Birds Eye View of Casco Bay: Portland, Maine and Surroundings. c. 1905 was owned and used by Officer Lt. Armstrong as a military "site plan" for the U.S. Army's program to prevent malaria during  WWII 1/  at it primary East Coast base, Casco Bay, Maine. The base was both defensive and offensive in its programs throughout WWII.  Hand written instructions on the face of the map document the actions required or completed  - "Should be done away with", or "Marsh drained" as part of the mosquito eradication program. These notations are along the coast, on...

The New England Coast From New York to Portland.

The New England Coast from New York to Portland  is a scarce, colorful and geographically detailed bird's-eye view from a high vantage point that encompasses a vast regional landscape. The scenery on the map is framed to the west by the Hudson River at the tip of New York City all the way north to its origin in the six million acre Adirondack Park1/, easterly across Long Island, past Block Island and bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and into Buzzard's Bay, where our gaze is guided by a ferry boat track that passes Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and around Cape Cod,...

MAUI HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1885.1903., Molokai, 1897, Oahu Hawaiian Islands, 1902, Kauai Hawaiian Islands 1903, Lanai Government Survey 1878

MAUI  HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1885.1903.
Hawaiian Government Survey.    W.D. Alexander. Surveyor-General.
Primary Triangulation by W.D. Alexander and S.E. Bishop.
Boundaries and Topography by W.D. Alexander, C.J. Lyons, M.D. Monsarrat, F.S. Dodge, S.E. Bishop, E.D. Baldwin and W.R. Lawrence.
Map by F.S. Dodge.  [Scale 1:60000] 1885.  Brought up to date in 1903 by John M. Donn.
Andrew B. Graham Co., Lithographers, Washington, D.C.  [1906]
multi-color lithograph
condition: very good, original color, professionally conserved and flattened, along lowest horizontal fold instances of minor paper loss, backed on white muslin
Dimensions:       53 3/8 " w  x...

The COLOUR of An OLD CITY A MAP of Boston by Edwin Olsen & Blake Clark, artists 1926

          The Colour of an Old City A Map of Boston by artists Edwin Olsen (1902-1996) and Blake Clark (1900-1979) and published by venerable Boston book publisher Houghton Mifflin, copyright 1926 is both art and cartography. There is so much historical imagery in the patchwork scene depicting the City of Boston, and so much history and imagery designed into the pictorial frame that surrounds the bird's eye view of the City of Boston that one almost does not know where to begin. Our stroll through the map, in excerpts below, are not linear but historical.
        The beauty of...

The Atlantic Shore Line Railway and Connections. 1908

    This colorful bird's eye view of the New England coast from Boston Harbor to Portland, Maine shows the various kinds of train and steamship line connections for summer tourists wishing to reach their vacation destinations in Maine. The map key explains that the transit routes are for the Atlantic Shore Line Railway, a Maine electric street railway, the steam railway line of the B&M R.R. and the Southern Maine Steamship Line with connections to the Atlantic Shore Line Railway. The company was chartered in 1900. In 1905, the Maine legislature authorized the Atlantic Shore Line Railway to purchase and merge...

A Pageant of the Pacific, 1940 - Complete Set (I.-VI) with Catalogue

      What can one say about a Miguel Covarrubias work of art except that it is a riot of color and form. This complete set (Plates I-VI) of original multi-color lithographs and the accompanying Publisher Pacific House's 10-page, black and white illustrated catalogue, titled Pageant of the Pacific by Miguel Covarrubias is a an artist and anthropologist's pictorial celebration of the Pacific Ocean region, its people, its wildlife and their culture. The lithographs are pictorial maps as well as original decorative art. Covarrubias presents a view of the world as an organic form united by the ocean.  Economic activity and...

Excerpts From Visions of Cody (Signed and numbered First Edition) by Jack Kerouac

First Edition, numbered and signed "Jack Kerouac" in blue ink on publisher's colophon, in original acetate covers, found with separate publisher's promotional sheet and a clipping dated October 21, 1969 from the Fitchburg (Mass.) Sentinel with the obituary for Jack Kerouac. Title page reads "Excerpts From Visions of Cody". Publisher's colophon reads: "750 copies of this book were printed for New Directions in December, 1959 at the press of Igal Roodenko, New York and signed by the author. This is number 352 - Jack Kerouac (signature in blue ink)"

NEW DIRECTIONS explains in its promotional sheet for Visions of Cody...

The First Book of Negroes, First Edition, First Printing 1952

          The First Book of Negroes is a children's book written and prepared by Langston Hughes (1901-1967), a child of the American mid-West and a student of American society throughout his life. His young adult life began in New York City, where he attended Columbia University and continued his personal goal of being a writer of poetry, prose and essays. Langston Hughes was a political activist in the pre-WWII era and throughout his entire life. His advocacy to eliminate racism in America was paired with his cultural goals of promoting African American self-expression in the arts, including jazz, other music,...

Nantucket From Monomoy Shore, Panorama c. 1910-1920, set of Three Panoramas by H. Marshall Higgins

A rarely seen trio of H. Marshall Gardiner's (1884-1942) Nantucket Phostint process panoramas, Nantucket From Monomoy Shore, Nantucket Island, Mass. Foot Pond in Saul's Hills and Nantucket Island, Mass. Moorlands and Polpis Harbor, these color photo prints are remarkable for the natural color palette and clarity of photographic image produced by the Detroit Publishing Company's proprietary Phostint process. This unique series of Nantucket panorama Phostint prints have both a photographic verisimilitude and a painterly use of color. From 1910 to 1942, H. Marshall Gardiner lived on Nantucket. 1/ He knew the landscape well. His interests included the architecture of Nantucket,...

NEW-YORK.(nd) c. 1877- 1892 Bird's Eye View - Scarce historic and futuristic Edition

We view through the lens of at least a hundred and twenty-five years ago the expanse of Manhattan, its surrounding waters, Brooklyn, and Governor's Island in the artful and scarce color lithograph NEW-YORK.  This bird's eye view anchors our eye at the base of Manhattan and from there expands northward up the Hudson River to the horizon, up the East River past Brooklyn to Long Island Sound and southwest to Jersey City and Hoboken.  These two New Jersey cities are named in the print's key in the lower margin as "Jersey City und Hoboken".  While the publisher, printer and artist...

Map of the United States From the Latest Authorities. 1846 [with Map of Texas]

This first edition of the T. and E.H. Ensign 1/ Map of the United States From the Latest Authorities.1846 with its large inset Map of Texas is a map of ambition. First, the political ambition on December 29, 1845 of the United States Congress to extend the nation coast to coast starting with a vote that day of a majority of both chambers of Congress to annex Texas as the 28th State. Congress knew opening this path required taking substantial Mexico territory all the way to the Pacific Coast. Second, the political ambition expressed on that same day by the...

Map of New England, c.1851

This vividly colored Ensign, Thayer & Co. Map of New England 1/was found rolled up and tucked away for safe storage by a family member for future generations, and here it is. The riot of imagery and geometric patterns, original vivid orange outlines and orange, red and green wash are characteristic of certain Ensigns 2/ & Thayer2/ pictorial maps and fully expressed in this remarkable example. The pictorial vignettes in the Map of New England celebrate the founding role of New Englanders, primary among them politically John Hancock3/ in the American Revolution and in the creation of the United States...