County Map of Florida

County map of Florida published in the early 1880s.

This attractive map of Florida was published in Philadelphia in 1882 by Samuel Augustus Mitchell. Mitchell was one of the most prominent American mapmakers of the 19th century and initially got involved with cartography as a school teacher who was frustrated with the quality of available maps. He collaborated with skilled engravers and produced high-quality maps and atlases that contained the most up-to-date information available. Mitchell’s son would take over the business after his death in 1860 and continue the tremendous output.

His attention to detail is evident within the image, which provides an informative snapshot of the Sunshine State in the midst of the Gilded Age. Counties are colored in a distinctive hue and finely engraved lines label an interesting variety of place names, battle sites, geographic features, and other locations of interest. A limited number of railroads are shown in operation and the massive Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp are depicted pictorially. An inset map in the lower right presents a city plan of Mobile, Alabama, an important commercial center on Mobile Bay that was suffering through a period of economic depression at the time of publication