Sign In

An unusually fine example of this large and detailed map of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, colored by counties, published by the colorful and prolific J.T. Lloyd in New York.

This expansive Civil War period map covers the United States east to Dakota Territory, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory, and eastern Texas, with a large inset map of Florida. Impressively detailed, it showcases features like state and county lines, capitals, wagon routes, turnpikes, railway lines, military forts, post office locations, courthouses, and lighthouses.  

Lloyd's maps typically include testimonials from important Americans, with this map having a note from Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, ordering a copy of Lloyd's map of the Mississippi River.  To the right of the title is a list of Lloyd maps with prices, completed and "Under Way."

A Racist Hotel Review in Civil War America

Lloyd was clearly a mercurial character and an overt racist who, in modern times, has become something of a legend for his rants against merchants and hoteliers he encountered in his travels.  The following is an example from this map:

The traveling public are cautioned against stopping at the Burnett House, Cincinnati, O., as no respect or attention is shown to guests, excepting when their bills are presented. The proprietor spends much of his time in gambling, caring little for the comfort of his guests, or how badly his clerks and servants act Almost daily, ladies are insulted in this house. Drunken men have been known n light their cigars and smoke at the dinner-table, compelling the lady guests to rise and leave the room. One of the clerks, named Wm. W. Johnson, the very personification impudence, forces himself into ladies' rooms uninvited, and often insults them in the grossest manner; and it is high time the PUBLIC should have this matter before them to decide upon. On the 13th of October, this impudent clerk, Johnson, went into a lady guest's room at the Burnett House, uninvited, and threatened to WHIP HER LITTLE SICK BOY, TWO YEARS OF AGE, for making a noise in the halls. Had the lady's husband been present, he would not have dared insult her. The matter was laid before Mr. T. P. Saunders, the Proprietor-but what can be expected from a gambler!-he promised the lady that Mr. Johnson should be discharged the next day; he never kept his word; to avoid meeting the lady, after violating his word, in the presence of witnesses, went off suddenly to St. Louis on a gambling tour; this left the lady no alternative but to leave the house. A few months before this case, Mr. Johnson went into another lady's room to illuminate the windows in honor of a victory of the Union troops; the lady objected, on the ground that her mother-in-law had died the previous day, and she did not wish to be intruded upon in her sorrow; but he by force lit the candles in the windows, which the lady blew out after he left the room; he then returned, and, by holding her hands, lit the candles, threatening her, with an oath, if she dared extinguish the lights. Another lady, who had just arrived at the Burnett House, was insulted by this Johnson stopping at her room, and asking her if she would not like to have a hot whisky punch sent to her-the lady was dumbfounded with astonishment atsuch impudence. The Burnett House is unfortunate in having rascally clerks; for some months, a clerk named James T. Fulton made it a rule to write notes and stick them under the doors of lady guests' rooms, pretending that he had become smitten with their beauty, and signing fictitious names to his notes; if this failed to receive a reply, he would then slander the person whom he tried to over-reach, by circulating absurd stories about the office and bar-room-this scamp was always boasting that he intended to marry some rich girl, no matter whether she had brains or not, hence, his impudence in forcing himself into every lady's presence. A few weeks ago, a married lady whom he slandered, having just learned of it, went to his boarding house on the corner of Fourth and Race Streets, and, after stating the object of her visit, took off her gloves, and gave him the choice of giving her a written contra diction. or of having an ounce ball put through his carcass. He very quickly signed the paper, begging the lady not to show it to the ladies in the Burnett House. All this occurred in the presence of his own wife, who was probably not aware of the character of the man she had recently married. This case of the Burnett House is equal to that of a first class hotel in Philadelphia, owned by Boston negro worshiping abolitionists, who, thinking a negro better than a white person, attempted on the 1st of January to set a "culled pussun" at their table, which so enraged the guests that they left the house; and the public and solid citizens of Philadelphia demanded of the property holders of the Girard House that it be reopened at once for the accommodation of the traveling public, which has been done; and this excellent hotel, which had been closed for two years, owing to some dispute in regard to ownership, is once more crowded with gentlemen and ladies, not negroes. Let the seal of public contempt be put upon such houses and their ungentlemanly conductors.-Lloyd's Weekly R. R. Guide.

The map was issued between about 1862 and 1864, employing several different color schemes, testimonials, and several editions with paste-down text panels over the Florida inset.