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Title: Texas
- Author: Rand McNally & Co.
- Date: 1899
- Condition: Very Good - Age related wear, remnants of previous binding
- Inches: 6 3/4 x 5 1/2 [Paper]
- Centimeters: 17.14 x 13.97 [Paper]
- Product ID: 308560
This small but detailed map of Texas shows county borders, major cities, towns, and extensive rail lines. It includes surrounding states and territories, such as New Mexico and Indian Territory (Oklahoma), and highlights physical features like the Staked Plain, rivers, and the Gulf of Mexico coastline. Insets show the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma at the same scale, and a statute miles scale is provided at the bottom. The map reflects late 19th-century boundaries and transportation routes.
Map of Louisiana on verso.
Background on Creator
In 1856, William H. Rand opened a Chicago print shop, hiring Irish immigrant Andrew McNally as a printer two years later. They established a relationship with the Chicago Tribune’s predecessor, soon taking over its printing operation in full. Eventually, in 1868 Rand, McNally, and Rand’s nephew George Amos Poole bought out the Tribune and founded Rand, McNally & Co. Now with significant printing experience under their belt, the three men embarked on several publishing endeavors, capitalizing on the massive success of Chicago’s railroad industry by printing tickets, timetables, and railroad guides. Rand, McNally & Co.’s cartographic enterprise began as an offshoot of their existing publishing business; it was not until 1872 that the company printed its first map, a wax engraving that appeared in the company’s December Railroad Guide. Thanks to the low cost and ease of production associated with wax engravings, the firm quickly became the largest commercial publisher in the United States and to this day continues to produce quality atlases, maps, and globes.