Olympia, Washington, 1879 – Vintage Map Wall Art
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
Few images capture their era like this antique map of Olympia, Washington, 1879. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.
Library of Congress record: Bird's eye view of the city of Olympia, East Olympia and Tumwater, Puget Sound, Washington Territory, 1879
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Olympia, Washington, 1879
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Olympia, Washington, in 1879 was the seat of the Washington Territorial government, a small town at the head of Budd Inlet where the Deschutes River empties into Puget Sound. Its economy rested on the water, with lumber from nearby mills, sailing vessels loading cargo at its wharves, and a fishing and oyster trade drawing on the Sound. The Northern Pacific Railroad had chosen Tacoma as its western terminus in 1873, leaving Olympia off the main transcontinental line and keeping it smaller than its northern rivals. Residents knew the town as the capital, home to the territorial legislature and courts, and the territorial capitol stood among its civic buildings as statehood, which came in 1889, drew nearer.
| Created / published | 1879 |
|---|---|
| Creator | a.l. bancroft & company, glover, e. s. (eli sheldon) |
| Notes | An original bird's-eye view map of Olympia, Washington, drawn in 1879. Bird's-eye view maps were drawn by travelling artists who walked a town street by street, sketching every building from an imagined vantage point in the air, then sold the finished lithograph door to door by subscription. Roughly five thousand American towns were recorded this way between the 1860s and the 1920s, and for many of them the panoramic map is the most complete picture of the place that survives. Reproduced from the original in the Library of Congress collections. Printed to order on archival paper. Free shipping on all US orders. |
| Subjects | Panoramic maps--Washington |
| Source | Library of Congress, Panoramic Maps |
| Original scan | 9,680 × 6,112 px · prints to 32 × 20 in at 300 dpi |
| Library of Congress title | Bird's eye view of the city of Olympia, East Olympia and Tumwater, Puget Sound, Washington Territory, 1879 |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-OYK-491292 |
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