New Commercial Railroad Map of the United States.

Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co.,, 1899. First edition of this colour map of the continental United States. It shows all 49 states and territories at the time (excluding Alaska and Hawaii, including the Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma), and the network of railways connecting them. We have traced only one institutional copy in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Rand McNally started in 1856 as a printing shop in Chicago, with their main client being the Tribune (later the Chicago Tribune). Over time they expanded into tickets and timetables for the railroad industry, then dictionaries and newspapers, and finally maps. Their first map appeared in December 1872 and they continued to regularly update and publish new editions. This present map dates from 1899, in the aftermath of the panic of 1893 and the subsequent railroad consolidation by the likes of J. P. Morgan. This copy was sold in the United Kingdom by Edward Stanford, Geographer to the Queen and a renowned map dealer. His ticket can be found on the lower right corner of the map and his yellow label on the slipcase. He also added yellow covers lettered with his prospectus to the map verso. Large colour lithograph map (1,028 x 1,463 mm, folding to 204 x 133 mm), dissected into 55 panels, linen backed, yellow card covers. Housed in the publisher's brown card slipcase, yellow label to front lettered in black. Some cities circled in contemporary blue crayon. Map lightly creased; case rubbed at edges, a few small white splotches and scratches: a very good copy.