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With Beautifully Printed Maps and Views of Chicago

Remarkable run of this rare early pre-fire Chicago real estate publication, notable for its profusion of fine engraved maps, including several folding and color-printed maps. The run begins with Vol. 1, No. 1 (July 1869). Jack Wing, the youthful editor and publisher of The Land Owner, was a notable but mostly unsung promoter of Chicago in the years immediately following the Civil War. Indeed, a recent book about Wing bemoans that "despite his place in Chicago publishing and philanthropy, Wing's name is conspicuously absent from histories of the city's movers and shakers, even though no serious history of Chicago can be written without reference to many of his publications, especially The Land Owner" (Williams, page lxi). His love of fine printing is reflected in the range of maps and illustrations herein - mostly wood engraved plat maps printed in various colors which Wing styled, oddly enough, as copyrighted "cartoons." There is also at least one lithograph and a few steel engraved portraits. 

Included here are the earliest (i.e., pre-fire) issues of this rare Chicago-focused real estate periodical. The content (including maps and illustrations) is Chicago-centric, but the articles relate to the real estate business on a national level. Much of the text relates to western states, including Kansas and even California, for example, under "Real Estate Matters in San Francisco" the editor reports on the history of land swindles: "Since 1857, California has been the scene of swindling operations in lands to such an extent that settlers have been kept off the vacant lands by existing insecurity in perfecting titles..."

The Land Owner was the brainchild of 24-year-old Chicago entrepreneur, publisher, and bibliophile John "Jack" M. Wing. Born in 1845 in Oswego County, New York, Wing established himself as a journalist and businessman in Chicago soon after the Civil War. Traveling extensively, he wrote for various newspapers and developed an interest in fine printing. In 1865 he published a book on the Union Stock Yards of Chicago. In 1869, he started The Land Owner, reportedly making $35,000 a year from the publishing venture (clearly based on advertising).

A recent biographical work based on his youthful private diaries (The Chicago Diaries of John M. Wing, 1865-1866 - Google Books) documents his first few years in Chicago:

Wing would return to Chicago definitively in 1869, where he founded a trade magazine, The Land Owner, two years before the Great Fire created opportunities for fortune seeking even greater than those of the Chicago of the 1860s. The Land Owner would witness, in type and in lithographed and engraved images, first the boom years before the fire and then the rebirth of the city after it. - Williams, page x.

The above-mentioned biography also makes light of Wing's romantic proclivities, which involved bedding down with other young men in Chicago boarding houses.

Here is how Wing touted The Land Owner:

Immense Success - The circulation of The Land Owner is increasing more rapidly than that of any other periodical in the country. We make this assertion boldly. Being the only reliable journal of real estate published, the only one that sustains the character of a first-class journal, or publishes intelligence which cost money to obtain, and engravings which cost money to execute - it takes rank with the ablest journals of the day. Its great and unprecedented success demonstrates that the days of cheap advertising sheets, whose circulation depends entirely upon the magnanimity of people to give them a place of gratuitous deposit upon their door-steps, have passed. Our circulation to actual subscribers, and through the sales at the news rooms all over the country, is ten times greater than that of any paper devoted to the real estate interest in the world - (Vol. 1, No. 5, page 105).

By 1888 he was so successful in the publishing business that he retired, at the age of forty-four, to focus on international travel and book collecting, with a particular interest in extra-illustrated books. Despite losing many rare books in the Chicago Fire of 1871, his surviving diaries, scrapbooks, and extra-illustrated books are housed at the Newberry Library. Wing established an endowment at the Newberry Library to continue collecting printing and publishing historical materials.

After the fire Wing continued to engage in Chicago boosterism, publishing such titles as Rebuilt Chicago as well as an illustrated guidebook: 7 days in Chicago : a Complete Guide to the Street Cars, Omnibuses, Railroads, Notable Buildings, Union Stock Yards, Churches, Charitable Institutions, etc., Packing Houses, Tunnels and Water Systems, etc. : Together with a Map and Historical Sketch of the City and the Great Fire (1877). Jack Wing died in Chicago in 1917.

"Cartoon" Real Estate Plats

Tipped-in the issue for January 1871 is a 4-page "Annual Announcement" for The Land Owner, wherein the publisher promises "to further increase the illustrations of the journal... while the SUPERB COLORED CARTOONS will be presented in large numbers, showing lands in the market, village sites, etc." Wing claimed a copyright for his color-printed engraved plat maps, styling them "Cartoons, engraved on wood and printed in colors, as the cheapest and most attractive style of plats for the display property and sub-divisions. Cheaper than lithographs or any other style and can be worked on any press."  

According to the OCLC serial record for the publication, J. M. Wing & Co. ceased publication of The Land Owner in July of 1874, but the title was continued as a weekly until 1877 by B. V. Moffatt with a slight title change.

Title changes: 1869 - Dec. 1871, The Land Owner. A Journal Real Estate. Devoted to Landed Interests, Building and Improvement [wrapper title]. 1872, The Land owner. A Journal of Real Estate, Building & Improvement. 1873, The Land Owner. An Illustrated Newspaper.

J. M. Wing & Co., "Publishers, Printers & Stationers," offered printing services for Real Estate Agents, with Plate of Land and Subdivisions a specialty: "Our extended facilities, in connection with the publication of The Land Owner, enable us to execute Engraved Maps of all Kinds."

Despite Wing's hyperbole about a large circulation, the publication survives in surprisingly few examples today. The only complete run we can locate is Wing's personal set, now at the Newberry Library. OCLC locates 8 other partial holdings, each usually comprising a few issues only or at best a small run:

• Columbia (v.4: no.2 (Feb. 1872), v.4:no.5 (May 1872)-v.6:no.6 (June 1874);
• New York Public (v.3: no.10-v. 6, no. 4 (1871-1874);
• Univ. of Illinois, Chicago (v.2:no.7(1870), v.4:no.10(1872)-v.4:no.12(1872), v.5:no.1(1873)-v.5:no.10(1873), v.5:no.12(1873), v.6:no.1(1874)-v.6:no.6(1874);
• Univ. of Kansas (v. 3, no. 2, 4 (Feb., Apr. 1871);
• Western Reserve Historical Society Library (v.1:no. 6; v.2:no. 1-2, 6-12; v.3:no. 1-3,5-8, 10 (Dec 1869, Jan-Feb, Jun-Dec 1870, Jan-Mar, May-Aug, Oct 1871);
• Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (holdings not reported).

Full page illustrations (mostly plates, some in text):

• Front Elevation of a Block of stores, with offices on the second floor now under contract for erection at Riverside.
• The Great Parks of the World: A Natural Bridge in the Bois de Boulogne. An Artificial Grotto in the Bois de Boulogne.
• The Great Parks of the World: Restaurant De L'Isle, Bois de Boulogne in the Swiss Style.
• The Great Parks of the World: Rustic Shelter in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.
• The Great Parks of the World: Warwick Vase (Terra Cotta) Recently Placed in Union Park, Chicago.
• The Great Parks of the World: Scenes in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Accompanying the Land Owner for January, 1870. Double-sheet.
• The Honore Block-- Cor. Dearborn and Monroe Streets, Chicago.
• The New Illinois State Capitol at Springfield.
• The New Clarke School (Reuben Street, between Sampson and Hastings) With floorplans.
• W. J. Barney, Esq. President of National Board of Real Estate Agents. Portrait.
• The New Drake Block, corner of Wabash Avenue and Washington Street.
• Row of six Brown Stone Residences, recently erected by Ald. Chas. C. P. Holden, cor. Monroe and Aberdeen Sts.
• Interior of the Great Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Depot, Chicago. Double-sheet.
• The Hawkeye Insurance Company's Building, Des Moines, Iowa.
• The Pacific Hotel Company's Proposed New Hotel, Chicago.
• Row of Six Brick Residences, cor. Adams and Paulina Sts., Chicago, the property of Edward C. Waller, Esq.
• John B. Calhoun, Esq. Land Commissioner. Illinois Central R.R. Lithograph portrait.
• Healthful Homes at Highland Park. Full page ad by J. H. Stead & Co. printed on yellow paper, with subdivision map
• The Parks of the World: Rustic Bridge in Union Park, Chicago
• The Garrett Biblical Institute - Heck Hall, Evanston
• T. B. Mills, President of the Kansas Board of Real Estate Agents. Engraved portrait
• The New Iowa State Capitol, at Des Moines
• Our Building Stone - View of the Main Amherst Quarry
• The New Bigelow Hotel
• Scenes at Maywood: The New Depot / The Maywood Hotel, opened June 17th, 1870
• Parks of the World, No. IX: View from the East Side of the Lowe Lake in Maywood Park / View from the North Shore of Lower Lake in Maywood Park
• Chas. C. P. Holden, Salesman Ill. Central R.R. Land Department. Engraved portrait
• The New Nevada Hotel. Near the Washington Street Tunnel, Chicago
• City Improvements. Messrs. Culver, Page & Hoynes' New Building in Monroe Street, Chicago
• The New Chamber of Commerce, Philadelphia
• Foreign Real Estate Improvements - Square Des Batignolles, Paris

The plat maps, engraved by William D. Baker, Chicago, are as follows:

1. Washington Heights. Double-sheet.
2. Maywood. Double-sheet.
3. Chicago in 1835. From a Historical Map found among the papers of the late John Kinzie. Brown ink.
4. Ravenswood and Environs. Situated 5 1/2 miles from the Chicago Court House, on the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, Milwaukee Division. 15 1/4 x 19 3/4 inches. Brown ink.
5. Englewood. Situated 7 miles from the Chicago Court House, at the Junction of P. Ft. W. & C.R.R., C. R.I. & P.R.R. and M.S. & N.I.R.R. Double sheet. Brown ink.
6. Sectional View of the Grand Boulevard to Connect Riverside with Chicago. Olmsted, Vaux & Co. Architects & Superintendents.
7. The South Chicago Parks and Boulevards, Accompanying the Land Owner for October. Double-sheet. Green ink.
8. Plan of the West Chicago Parks and Boulevards, Showing Exact Location, Elevation of Land, etc. 10 1/4 x 33 1/4. Brown ink.
9. Highland Park, Lake County, Illinois, Accompanying the Land Owner for October. Situated on the Lake Shore, Twenty-two Miles from Chicago.... 16 1/4 x 22 1/2 inches. Green ink.
10. Plat Showing Valuable Dock Property Along the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Accompanying the Land Owner for November. Double-sheet. Green ink.
11. Hinsdale - a Delightful Residence Suburb. Situated 16 Miles from Chicago, on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. 15 x 21 1/4 inches. Green ink.
12. Plat Showing the Village of Jefferson and Adjoining Lands, Accompanying the Land Owner for February [1870]. Double-sheet. Green ink.
13. The Private Grounds and Residence of L. W. Murray, Esq. at Riverside. Green ink.
14. Plat Showing Valuable Property Along the South Parks and Boulevards. In Gookins & Bundy's Sub-division. Double-sheet. Green ink.
15. Kansas City and its Railroad Connections. 1870. Compiled and Published by Munford & Fancher, Real Estate Brokers, Kansas City, Missouri. Land Owner Eng. Chicago. Green ink.
16. Plat Showing Lincoln Park, Humboldt and Central Parks, and their Connecting Boulevards, the Lake Front dedicated by the State to Park Purposes, Union Park, etc. March, 1870. 15 1/2 x 21 1/4 inches. Green ink.
17. Plat Showing Valuable Property on Humboldt Park and Boulevard, Chicago. Being Oviatt's Subdivision of the W. 1/2 S.W. 1/4, Section 1, 39, 13. Double-sheet. Green ink.
18. Leavenworth, Kansas, and its Railroad Connections. Showing the Great Bridge Now in Process of Construction Across the Missouri River, etc. 16 x 21 3/4 inches. Green ink.
19. Plat Showing Evanston, its North and South Environs, the University Grounds, etc. May, 1870. 21 3/4 x 16 inches. Green ink.
20. The City of Jackson, Michigan - Shows its Rail Roads, Real Estate, Parks, Manufacturing Sites, Etc., Accompanying the Land Owner for June. 16 x 21 1/2 inches. Green ink.
21. Suburban Residence Sites - Harlem and Thatcher. Situated four and a half miles from the Chicago City limits, on the Galena Division, C. & N. W. R. R. Double-sheet. Green ink.
22. Plat Showing Desirable Residence Property on Humboldt Park and West Division Street, Chicago. Double-sheet. Green ink.
23. Map of the Railways and the Connections at Indianapolis Compiled by Martin and Brown, Title Abstract Office, Indianapolis, Ind. Engraved by Baker, "The Land Owner" Green ink.
24. Emporia and its Railroad Connections. Green ink.
25. The Town and Harbor of Frankfort, on Lake Michigan. Geo. S. Frost & Bro., Detroit, Agents. Double-sheet. Green ink.
26. Plat of Homewood and its Residence Sites. Situated 23 miles from Chicago on the Illinois Central Railroad. 22 x 16 1/4 inches. Green ink.
27. Lansing, Mich. - Its Capitol and Fair Grounds, Building and Manufacturing Sites, Parks, Real Estate, Railroads, etc. 16 x 21 inches. Green ink.
28. Lyman Bridges' Addition to Chicago. Double-sheet. Green ink.
29. East Saginaw, Mich. - Its Railroads, Fair Grounds, Dockage, Real Estate and General Features. 16 x 21 1/2 inches. Green ink.
30. City of Lincoln, Nebraska. Green ink.
31. Jefferson Park. Green ink.

Rarity

Extraordinarily rare. Not in the American Imprints Inventory Check List of Chicago Ante-Fire Imprints.

The only confirmed complete run we can locate is Jack Wing's own set, held at the Newberry Library. OCLC locates 8 other partial holdings.