Maps

38. Nebraska and Kansas, New York: J.H. Colton & Co., 1854.

The Territories of Kansas and Nebraska were formed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The subject of much political debate before its passage, the Act provided that each territory should determine for itself whether to enter the Union as a slave or free state.

This map, created by the New York based map company of J.H. Colton was produced to depict the new territories. The Nebraska Territory, as defined at that time extended to the Canadian border. The southern boundary of Kansas was set at the 37th parallel and the western boundaries of both territories extended to the Continental Divide. By the time Kansas attained statehood in 1861, the size of the state had been reduced from the 126,283 square miles shown in this map to the 81,318 square miles that constitute the state today.

The map shows the location of towns, rivers, Native American tribes, missions, and routes through the area, such as the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. Along the Oregon route the map notes that mileage is included at various points using Westport Landing in Missouri as the starting point. An inset at the bottom of the map shows the land acquired from Mexico as part of the Gadsden Purchase of 1854.

39. Map of Newton, Kansas, New York: Sanborn Map & Publishing Co., Limited, 1884.

The Sanborn Map Company produced hundreds of thousands of maps for towns across the United States designed to provide fire insurance companies with the detailed information they needed in order to determine the amount of risk involved in underwriting a fire insurance policy for a particular structure. The several thousand examples in the Kansas Collection record the built environment of 243 Kansas towns from the 1880s to the early 1930s. They were acquired from the Library of Congress.

The maps were prepared by surveyors sent out to the individual towns by the Sanborn Map Company. Walter R. Ristow, in his introduction to the work Fire insurance maps in the Library of Congress, estimates that at the peak of production there were approximately three hundred surveyors working throughout the United States—anonymous mapmakers, unfortunately, since they did not sign their work. The maps were produced in the Company's New York plant, using a lithographic process, and each sheet was colored by hand, using wax paper stencils.

Each map shows the size, shape, and construction of dwellings, commercial buildings, and factories, the locations of windows and doors, fire walls, sprinkler systems, types of roofs, the names and widths of streets, property boundaries, building use, house and block numbers, the location of water mains, fire alarm boxes, and hydrants. A range of editions of a given map over a period of time provides a unique source of information on town growth and development.

The map exhibited is one of four sheets showing Newton, Kansas, in 1884. The upper left corner of the map provides an index of sorts, showing what portion of the town has been surveyed. In the upper right corner the map contains the signatures of insurance agents in Newton who attested to the map's accuracy and completeness. The rest of the map contains the actual survey for the section of the town that is designated as "1" in the upper left corner of the map. The key to the map is located in the right center and indicates, among other things, that red (which appears pink on the map) is used for brick construction, blue for stone, yellow for frame, and green for "specials."

40. Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, map showing land for sale along the route of the Railroad, in Kansas in 1875, strong and impartial testimony to the wonderful productiveness of the Cottonwood and Arkansas Valleys, Topeka, Kansas: Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, 1875.

This publication is a promotional piece issued by the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. In 1875 a number of newspaper editors from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Ohio were invited to travel on the Railroad, at the Railroad's expense, from Atchison, Kansas, to Granada, Colorado. The purpose of the trip was to counter negative images of Kansas that had resulted from the devastation caused by grasshoppers the previous year. Included are numerous quotations from the many editors who took part in this excursion, with glowing accounts of Kansas' potential for bountiful crops and good soil. Of the Cottonwood Valley one excursionist wrote "This valley is the richest part of Kansas that we passed through, and cannot be surpassed in the world for the richness of soil and contour of surface; and the crop of wheat, already at that time nearly all harvested, would rival the best crops ever raised in the Genesee Valley, New York. It was better than gold to the view, and was a sure index of the capacity of the soil and climate to produce this staff of life."

This particular map was originally folded down to fit into the book and attached directly to its back cover. Since repeated folding and unfolding have seriously weakened the map, it has been removed, opened out, and encapsulated. Catalog records for the book and map ensure that the original form is explained.

41. Bird's eye view of Hiawatha ( Brown County), Kansas, 1878, drawn by Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler.

Bird's eye views of towns—representations giving the impression of having been made from some imaginary viewpoint a few thousand feet up in the air--enjoyed a particular vogue during the 19th century and on into the 1920s. According to John Reps (Views and Viewmakers of Urban America), early bird's eye views were drawn by landscape artists, taking a high point of land as their viewpoint and drawing just what they could see.

Following the Civil War, as the country was opened up, artists began to travel the land looking for subscribers ready to pay for the production of views to advertise the development of a community and attract new residents and businesses. The artist would first spend time walking the streets of the town, sketching in detail the buildings, trees, topography, and the design of open spaces. Then, working from a town map, or from his own measurements, he constructed a grid showing the streets, and transferred to it his sketches of buildings and other information, using a perspective suggesting a viewpoint at an elevation of two to three thousand feet. A finished sketch was prepared for the agent to use in soliciting subscriptions; once the subscriptions were secured, a final drawing would be sent to a lithographer for printing.

The bird's eye view on show was drawn by Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler, a prolific artist in this genre who began work in the Midwest and expanded his business eastward. Below the view of the town a numbered index lists the major buildings.

The map shows a great deal of wear, with tears at the edges, a corner missing, and prominent stains along the left and top edges. It is fortunate that it has survived at all; in spite of its condition it retains great research potential.

42. The Great Highway of the Southwest, the Red Star Route, through the heart of the world's greatest oil field, Ft. Worth, Texas, to Kansas City and St. Joseph, Missouri, Iola, Kansas: The Red Star Association, undated.

This highway map is a part of a brochure advertising the Red Star Highway, from Fort Worth, Texas to Kansas City and St. Joseph, Missouri. According to the brochure the highway—"More hard surface road than any other route of equal length between the Mississippi River and the Pacific coast"—was financed by civic organizations and businesses in a number of towns in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

The brochure was designed to be folded, as evidenced by the horizontal and vertical crease lines, where deterioration is apparent.. To give it adequate protection and support it has been encapsulated.

The map is interesting, both for the information it contains about the highway, and the efforts made to promote its use. It was clearly not produced with libraries in mind, but for the traveler, as the brochure says: "TOURISTS—After you have left the Red Star Route, if you have no further use for this map, please hand it to some traveler coming our way."

43. Map of Waterville, Marshall County, Kansas, Union Pacific Rail Road Company, Central Branch, 1871.

This attractively produced map shows the plat for the town of Waterville, which is intersected by the Central Branch of the Union Pacific Railroad.

The townsite of Waterville was surveyed in 1868, and the town incorporated in 1870. Prior to the survey the land was conveyed to the Central Branch of the Union Pacific Railroad by its owner. The town grew quickly, and by 1871 included a city elevator, school, newspaper, hotel, several churches, and the railroad depot.