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Description

NC Carnall's massive promotional broadside is one of the earliest and rarest works illustrating Stanford University and Palo Alto.

Stanford University opened in 1891. The original grant for the University was dictated by Leland Stanford on November 11, 1885. Frederick Law Olmstead designed the campus in the following year. An original set of 14 preliminary sketches were drawn by Charles Allerton Coolidge and presented to Leland Stanford and his wife in April 1887.

The cornerstone for the University was laid on May 14, 1887. The town of Palo Alto was also founded about the same time. Issued by N C Carnall & Co. to promote the sale of lots in the new town of Palo Alto, the map incorporates three sketches of the campus which pre-date the actual construction of the buildings illustrated and almost certainly derive directly from Coolidge's sketches. Much of the campus was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake, making these among the only large format printed illustrations of the original campus architecture.

Rarity

A copy of an 1889 view with similar title but an entirely different image (and not in color) is located in the Honeyman collection at the Bancroft. Reps, Views and Viewmakers 177 (locating only the California Historical Society copy). We have also confirmed with the chief map librarian of the Branner Map Collection at Stanford that the Branner collection includes a facsimile copy of the map and that Stanford Special Collections holds a complete example of the map. Engraved by Dakin, in San Francisco.

One of only a few known copies of this large, decorative and extremely important item.