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G. W. & C. B. Colton was a prominent family firm of mapmakers who were leaders in the American map trade in the nineteenth century. Its founder, Joseph Hutchins Colton (1800-1893), was a Massachusetts native. Colton did not start in the map trade; rather, he worked in a general store from 1816 to 1829 and then as a night clerk at the United States Post Office in Hartford, Connecticut. By 1830, he was in New York City, where he set up his publishing business a year later.

The first printed item with his imprint is dated 1833, a reprint of S. Stiles & Company’s edition of David Burr’s map of the state of New York. He also printed John Disturnell’s map of New York City in 1833. Colton’s next cartographic venture was in 1835, when he acquired the rights to John Farmer’s seminal maps of Michigan and Wisconsin. Another early and important Colton work is his Topographical Map of the City and County of New York and the Adjacent Country (1836). In 1839, Colton began issuing the Western Tourist and Emigrant’s Guide, which was originally issued by J. Calvin Smith.

During this first decade, Colton did not have a resident map engraver; he relied upon copyrights purchased from other map makers, most often S. Stiles & Company, and later Stiles, Sherman & Smith. Smith was a charter member of the American Geographical and Statistical Society, as was John Disturnell. This connection would bear fruit for Colton during the early period in his career, helping him to acquire the rights to several important maps. By 1850, the Colton firm was one of the primary publishers of guidebooks and immigrant and railroad maps, known for the high-quality steel plate engravings with decorative borders and hand watercolors.

In 1846, Colton published Colton’s Map of the United States of America, British Possessions . . . his first venture into the wall map business. This work would be issued until 1884 and was the first of several successful wall maps issued by the firm, including collaborative works with D.G. Johnson. From the 1840s to 1855, the firm focused on the production of railroad maps. Later, it published a number of Civil War maps.

In 1855, Colton finally issued his first atlas, Colton’s Atlas of the World, issued in two volumes in 1855 and 1856. In 1857 the work was reduced to a single volume under the title of Colton’s General Atlas, which was published in largely the same format until 1888. It is in this work that George Woolworth (G. W.) Colton’s name appears for the first time.

Born in 1827 and lacking formal training as a mapmaker, G. W. joined his father’s business and would later help it to thrive. His brother Charles B. (C. B.) Colton would also join the firm. Beginning in 1859, the General Atlas gives credit to Johnson & Browning, a credit which disappears after 1860, when Johnson & Browning launched their own atlas venture, Johnson’s New Illustrated (Steel Plate) Family Atlas, which bears Colton’s name as the publisher in the 1860 and 1861 editions.

J.H. Colton also published a number of smaller atlases and school geographies, including his Atlas of America (1854-56), his Illustrated Cabinet Atlas (1859), Colton’s Condensed Cabinet Atlas of Descriptive Geography (1864) and Colton’s Quarto Atlas of the World (1865). From 1850 to the early 1890s, the firm also published several school atlases and pocket maps. The firm continued until the late 1890s, when it merged with a competitor and then ceased to trade under the name Colton.

Place/Date:
New York / 1853
Size:
26.3 x 20.7 inches
Condition:
Good
Stock#:
98712
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
20.5 x 28 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
60108
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
13 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
70974
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
15.5 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
71868
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
15.5 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
72837
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
15 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
73129
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
13 x 16 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74923
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
16 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
76144
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
16 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
78692
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
16 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
78695
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
15 x 12 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
78708
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
13 x 15.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
79756
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
13 x 15.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
84104
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
16 x 13 inches
Condition:
Good
Stock#:
84327
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
16.5 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
85562
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
16 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
86855
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
13 x 15.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
87108
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
28 x 17.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
89964
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
16 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
90303
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
16 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
93848
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
17 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
99468
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
15.5 x 12.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
99561
Place/Date:
New York / 1855
Size:
16 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
101136
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
13 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
82736
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
16 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
82975
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
15.5 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
83973
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
16 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
84477
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
13 x 16 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
87076
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
13 x 16 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
87643
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
15.5 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
88827
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
13 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
89715
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
26.5 x 17 inches
Condition:
Good
Stock#:
90067
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
16 x 12.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
90083
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
15 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
90106
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
15.5 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
93565
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
13 x 15.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
98293
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
13.5 x 14.5 inches each
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
98321
Place/Date:
New York / 1856
Size:
16 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
99558

Archived

Place/Date:
New York / 1833
Size:
21 x 17.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
14149
Place/Date:
New York / 1833
Size:
21 x 17 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
16910
Place/Date:
New York / 1833
Size:
21 x 17.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
54858
Place/Date:
New York / 1846
Size:
22 x 24.25 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
96495
Place/Date:
New York / 1849
Size:
20.5 x 18 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
8729
Place/Date:
New York / 1849
Size:
15 x 12 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
23154
Place/Date:
New York / 1849
Size:
18 x 11 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
35431
Place/Date:
New York / 1849
Size:
18 x 11 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
42378
Place/Date:
New York / 1849
Size:
18 x 11 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
66132
Place/Date:
New York / 1849
Size:
18 x 11.25 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
88191
Place/Date:
New York / 1849
Size:
18 x 11 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
90677
Place/Date:
New York / 1850
Size:
18 x 11 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
42377
Place/Date:
New York / 1850
Size:
18 x 11 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
43541
Place/Date:
New York / 1850
Size:
18 x 11 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
82581
Place/Date:
New York / 1851
Size:
18 x 11 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
63405
Place/Date:
New York / 1852
Size:
42 x 31 inches
Condition:
Good
Stock#:
70154
Place/Date:
New York / 1852
Size:
18 x 11.25 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
83456
Place/Date:
New York / 1853
Size:
16 x 12.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
20541
Place/Date:
New York / 1853
Size:
19 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
37601
Place/Date:
New York / 1853
Size:
18 x 11 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
41962
Place/Date:
New York / 1853
Size:
16 x 12.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
55034
Place/Date:
New York / 1853
Size:
37.5 x 40 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
69882
Place/Date:
New York / 1853
Size:
13 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
87275
Place/Date:
New York / 1854
Size:
27 x 16 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
1068p
Place/Date:
New York / 1854
Size:
15.5 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
12501
Place/Date:
New York / 1854
Size:
27 x 16 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
19950