Kentucky and Tennessee [and] Pennsylvania

A detailed mid-19th century map of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.

This fascinating map by Sidney Morse, originally issued in the 1845 edition of his North America Atlas, presents three important ‘border’ states: Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The first, an industrial powerhouse at the time, has clear access to Lake Erie (upper left) and the Chesapeake Bay (lower right). Inset maps show the coal region that was fuelling the second Industrial Revolution in America, plus the region around the important Commercial hub of Philadelphia.

The verso of the sheet captures Tennessee and Kentucky during a transformative period, when the old western frontier was becoming the economic anchor of the heartland of the U.S. Both maps show the entire corpus of available ‘mass’ transportation – wagon roads, canals, a few railroads, and slackwater navigation. Topography is depicted with an interesting mix of shading and hachure, offering a rich visualization of the Appalachian Mountains.