New Map of the Vicinity of Boston With Dates of Settlement and Distance From the Capital

Uncommon first edition pocket map of a thirty mile area around Boston.

Leading up to the Civil War, E.P. Dutton published a number of local area maps from his book and map store on Washington Street in Boston. Several advertisements for the “Boston Map Store” can be seen on the image and the attached covers of this lovely example of the 30-ish miles around Beantown.

Townships are colored individually, and their dates of incorporation and distance from the city are noted within each border. The image also provides a fascinating amount of detail about everyday sights in the largely rural collar around the city. Individual inns, fishing ponds, major industries like paper mills and salt works, and local landmarks like rocks and hills are all labeled, showing that the publisher had an intimate understanding of the surrounding area. Transportation routes like roads and railroads are also shown, including the red “horse rail roads” that serve the immediate vicinity of Boston.

After the Civil War, Dutton relocated his headquarters to New York and remained at the helm of his company until his death in 1923 (71 years in total!). It was acquired by the Penguin Group in 1986, after over 130 years in the publishing business.