Colton's Louisiana: Colton 1863 Civil War Era Map Civil War,Us History

Colton's Louisiana: Colton 1863 Civil War Era Map hand colored on fragile paper; in this particular case spot glued on backing card approx 13 x 16 ins. published by J H Colton,172 William St, New York. copyright 1855, but dated 1863 in the title. "handcoloring somewhat faded,some edge wear, tear, edge discoloration. folded as issued." Folding map of Louisiana divided into parishes published by J. H. Colton in 1864. Includes Sabine Lake, Atchafalaya Bay, Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi delta, and the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, among others. Also shows parts of Mississippi, Arkansas, and east Texas. Joseph Hutchins Colton (1800-1893) moved to New York City from his birthplace of Longmeadow, Massachusetts to start the J.H. Colton Company in 1831. Though he did not come from a cartographic or engraving background, Colton licensed copyrights from other cartographers such as David H. Burr and Samuel Stiles, producing quality reprints with additional engraving and border detail. After ten years of operating with this business model, Colton branched out to produce original maps, and by the 1850s had grown his company into a booming cartographic firm. Though the Colton Company published a variety of cartographic materials such as guidebooks and atlases, it is perhaps best known for its railroad maps. Distinguished by their elaborate decorative borders, Colton maps were printed using engraved steel plates which, though more costly than wax engravings, produced higher-quality images. These maps were then hand-colored by watercolor artists, resulting in slight irregularities which reflect the documents’ unique history and individualized production.