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Rare separately published map of Texas, issued by GW & CB Colton in 1867.
While the map appears at first look to be similar to the atlas maps by Colton from this period, there are several noteworthy differences:
- At the top left, the Panhandle inset is much larger.
- The map includes a third inset of Matagorda Bay.
- Most notable is the large inset Plan of the Great West, with a note above title showing "Proposed R.Rs. to the Pacific."
The map would seem to have been issued in anticipation of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Completed in 1869, by 1867, first railroad line across the United States was underway, as illustrated by the inset, which shows train lines with track hachuring extending westward from Omaha and Ft. Leavenworth. Notably, lines are also shown starting in St. Louis and crossing the west in a more southerly rote, via Santa Fe and the El Paso area and each connecting to Los Angeles. Several northern lines from St. Paul to Olympia Washington and Umpqua City, Oregon are shown, via Boise and Walla Walla.
The proposed Western routes of the railroad are quite extensive and in some cases, quite unusual.
Rarity
This separately published example is very rare. It would later be used for Richardson's Texas Almanac from about 1867 to 1870.
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.
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