Map of the Vicinity of Kansas City in Kansas and Missouri

A fantastic piece of Midwestern ephemera from the late 19th century.

This eye-catching map of Kansas City was engraved in 1887 by Walter MacCormac for the Kansas City Times. It was probably issued as a holiday gift to the newspapers’ subscribers, and shows fascinating contemporary details of the city’s ascendance in the late 19th century.

The stockyards, greatly enlarged in 1878, can be seen along the banks of the Kansas River. The waterworks, a critical tool to combat devastating fires that plagued 19th century urban environments, are located nearby. Transportation routes; including steam railroads, elevated lines, horse drawn street cars, and electric trolleys, are shown extending to every corner of the image. Parks, cemeteries (another source of limited urban greenspace), bridges, fairgrounds, and neighborhoods are also labeled.

The map was also apparently issued in 1888, and this is the scarcer of the two editions, with only five examples in OCLC.