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Description

Unrecorded large format map of Florida, published by George F. Cram in Chicago, in 1884.

The map is colored by counties and shows the extent of the General Land Office Township Surveys in Florida.

The Index includes an Explanation, list of Railroads, etc., with the map itelf showing:

  • Post Offices
  • Telegraph Stations
  • Court Houses
  • Railways
  • All areas with a population over 100
  • Railroad Grant Limits
  • Government and Private Grants
  • Sawgrass, Marsh and Swamp lands
  • Prairie
  • Large Hammocks

This is without question one of the most detailed privately printed maps of Florida in the 19th Century and one of the largest.

The map is evidently very rare. We locate no other known examples. No entries in OCLC.

Condition Description
Minor fold breaks and some minor soiling, but generally an exceptional survival.
George F. Cram Biography

George F. Cram (1842-1928), or George Franklin Cram, was an American mapmaker and businessman. During the Civil War, Cram served under General William Tecumseh Sherman and participated in his March to the Sea. His letters of that time are now important sources for historians of the Civil War. In 1867, Cram and his uncle, Rufus Blanchard, began the company known by their names in Evanston, Illinois.

Two years later, Cram became sole proprietor and the company was henceforth known as George F. Cram Co. Specializing in atlases, Cram was one of the first American companies to publish a world atlas. One of their most famous products was the Unrivaled Atlas of the World, in print from the 1880s to the 1950s.

Cram died in 1928, seven years after he had merged the business with that of a customer, E.A. Peterson. The new company still bore Cram’s name. Four years later, the Cram Company began to make globes, a branch of the business that would continue until 2012, when the company ceased to operate. For the final several decades of the company’s existence it was controlled by the Douthit family, who sold it just before the company was shuttered.