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Title: General Topographical Map. Sheet XXIII
- Author: Julius Bien & Co.
- Date: 1891
- Condition: Very Good - original centerfold as issued, missing corner at top right. Small tears; expertly repaired
- Inches: 27 1/2 x 16 1/2 [Image]
- Centimeters: 69.85 x 41.91 [Image]
- Product ID: 308572
This is highly detailed topographical map was produced for the U.S. War Department as part of the "Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies." The map, titled "General Topographical Map, Sheet XXIII," depicts northern and eastern Texas and extends into parts of Arkansas and Louisiana. It was created to document the Civil War era's geography, showing rivers, creeks, towns, post offices, ferries, railroads, and county boundaries as they existed in the late 19th century. Topographic relief is conveyed with hachures, and major water bodies are highlighted in shaded areas. Produced as a high-quality chromolithograph, the map serves as a valuable reference for historians, collectors, and researchers interested in historical land use, transportation networks, and settlement patterns of this region during and after the Civil War.
Background on Creator
Julius Bien (1826-1909) was born in Naumburg, Germany to a Jewish family. Best known for his scientific maps of the United States, Bien gained a reputation as a master lithographer and the foremost American scientific cartographer of his day. Coming of age as a young German in the mid-1840s, Bien studied art at both the Kunsthochschule Kassel as well as the Städel Institute in Frankfurt until the Revolutions of 1848 disrupted his burgeoning career. As liberal uprisings spread across Europe, Bien fought for causes such as German unity, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly, as did many others of Jewish descent. After this revolutionary wave failed to take hold, Bien and other liberals went into exile; he fled to New York in 1849, where he established a small lithographic business and soon made a name for himself as a printer of exceptional skill.
Over the course of his career, Bien won awards from exhibitions around the world and completed numerous major contracts with the United States government. To list only some of his prolific accomplishments, Bien produced surveys of the western U.S. for the Pacific Railroad, created maps documenting the Civil War, and published charts and graphics to accompany the Federal Census report. Later in his career, he also produced various atlases of remarkable quality.