Wisconsin Showing North Western part of Michigan

Large map of Wisconsin during the Gilded Age.

This detailed steel-engraved map presents the state of Wisconsin at a period of tremendous economic development and population expansion. Railroads – the primary catalyst for this growth – are prominently featured throughout the image. They facilitated the movement of people, agricultural products, livestock, minerals, lumber, and manufactured products between the Mississippi and the Great Lakes.

Toponyms identify an interesting assortment of settlements, geographic features, and other locations of interest. Original hand color, applied via stencil, delineates state borders and county outlines. These are further subdivided into townships, showing French-style long lots around Green Bay.

Published in Philadelphia by William Bradley and Brothers in 1884, the same year the Ringling Brothers first performed in their circus at Baraboo.