- Title: New Mexico
- Author: Rand, McNally & Co.
- Date: 1888
- Medium: Wax engraving
- Condition: Excellent
- Inches: 14 x 19 3/4 [Image]
- Centimeters: 35.56 x 50.17 [Image]
- Product ID: 222015
Map of New Mexico including parts of Texas, Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. Colored sections of the state indicate the locations of land grants and Native American reservations, and a numbered legend along the righthand margin indicates the locations of various mining districts.
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.