North America (Physical): Colton 1859

Title: North America (Physical) Author: J. H. Colton Date: 1859 Medium: Hand-colored lithograph Condition: Good - foxing and age toning Inches: 12 x 14.5 [Paper] Centimeters: 30.5 x 36.8 [Paper] Product ID: 100981 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 wer