Large format map of Southeastern Virginia, showing the Seat of War in early 1862.
Nice detail, including towns, roads, rivers, creeks, railroad lines, Court Houses and a host of other details.
Published in the May 31, 1862 edition of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, to illustrate the actions around Richmond.
A scarce map. Only one example has been offered in a dealer catalogue in the past 20 years.
G. W. & C. B. Colton was a prominent family firm of mapmakers who were leaders in the American map trade in the nineteenth century. The business was founded by Joseph Hutchins Colton (1800-1893). who bought copyrights to existing maps and oversaw their production. By the 1850s, their output had expanded to include original maps, guidebooks, atlases, and railroad maps. Joseph was succeeded by his sons, George Woolworth (1827-1901) and Charles B. Colton (1831-1916). The firm was renamed G. W. & C. B. Colton as a result. George is thought responsible for their best-known work, the General Atlas, originally published under that title in 1857. In 1898, the brothers merged their business and the firm became Colton, Ohman, & Co., which operated until 1901, when August R. Ohman took on the business alone and dropped the Colton name.