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1906 circa Julius Bien / United States Bureau of Topographical Engineers
$ 295.00
Description

Detailed separate map of Yellowstone National Park at the beginning of the 20th Century.

This finely detailed topographical map shows all of Yellowstone Park plus the region to the east up to Bighorn County, in today's Park County. It has good topographical detail with contour intervals at 100 feet at a scale of 1 inch = 4 miles.

The Upper, Shoshone, Gibbon, and Heart Lake Geyser Basins are named, along with the Mud Geysers, Mammoth Hot Springs, and Old Faithful Hotel.

There was another edition published with Snowshoe Cabins and Stations shown.

 

Julius Bien Biography

Julius Bien (1826-1909) was a German-born American lithographer and cartographer, renowned for his significant contributions to American cartography during the 19th century. Born on September 27, 1826, in Naumburg, Germany, Bien originally trained in his homeland, mastering the nascent craft of chromolithography, a method for producing multi-color prints.

In the 1850s, Bien emigrated to the United States, where he set up his own lithography firm, Julius Bien & Co., in New York. His innovative techniques and meticulous attention to detail quickly earned him a reputation as one of the country's leading lithographers. The firm became known for its wide range of work, from maps and atlases to commercial prints and illustrations.

One of Bien's most significant collaborations was with the U.S. government, particularly the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In the late 19th century, the USGS undertook the ambitious project of mapping the entire United States. Bien's firm was responsible for producing many of these topographical maps, and he introduced advanced printing techniques that enhanced their clarity, precision, and detail.

However, not all of Bien's ventures were successful. His attempt at reproducing a double elephant folio edition of Audubon's Birds of America in the 1860s, for instance, was left incomplete due to financial challenges posed by the Civil War. Despite this, many of the plates he did produce for this edition are considered masterpieces of chromolithography.

Julius Bien passed away on December 21, 1909, in New York. His contributions to lithography and cartography in the U.S. left a lasting legacy, with many of his techniques becoming standard practice in the field. His maps, in particular, serve as a testament to the evolving understanding and depiction of the American landscape during a period of rapid westward expansion and scientific exploration.