Fantastic Separately-Issued Minnesota Territory Town Plan.
Extremely rare separately-issued promotional town plan for Bancroft, in southern Minnesota Territory, issued by local job printers Holmes, Payte & Buechner who lithographed it in St. Paul, circa 1855.
Today, Bancroft is somewhat smaller than the street plan laid out on this map, having been surpassed by Albert Lea, which is not indicated on the wider-focus inset map in the upper right corner. As the town of Albert Lea is not shown (though the lake of the same name is), it is reasonable to assume that the map was printed at or before its founding in 1855.
The inset in the upper-right indicates roads north to Faribault and Mankato, as well as an east-west road that was probably the southernmost transit across the Territory at the time.
Streets, blocks, and lots are all labeled.
OCLC lists the map as 1856, as with some of Holmes, Payte & Buechner's other works. We feel that the date of circa 1855 is appropriate.
Provenance
Deaccessioned from Minnesota Historical Society along with a number of other examples of the same.
Rarity
Such early separate town plans from west of the Mississippi are extremely hard to come by today.
OCLC records this map in two institutional collections: Minnesota Historical and Yale University Library.